AUM: The Cult at the End of the World 

(dirs. Ben Braun & Chiaki Yanagimoto)

By: Adam Freed

The nation of Japan was sent reeling by the twin devastation of the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the mid 1940’s.  From that point forward the proud nation worked tirelessly to rebuild their economy, their way of life and their fractured sense of national pride.  Outwardly it appeared that the land of the rising sun had done exactly that, outpacing other rapidly growing global economies, so much so that by the end of the 1980’s they had once again grown into a global economic superpower.  All seemed to be going well for Japan until the dawn of the 1990’s when an overinflated housing market met with stock market instability.  The result of this perfect storm of economic risk factors made the island nation ripe for the rise of Aum Shinrikyo, a notorious and opportunistic religious cult that pushed Japan to the brink of national disaster.  The multilinguistic documentary AUM: The Cult at the End of the World directed by Ben Braun & Chiaki Yanagimoto is an interesting look at a seldom remembered event in Japanese history, that speaks to the much larger psychology behind those who are willing to hurl themselves blindly into the abyss of cult hero worship.

As the documentary outlines, Shoko Asahara is the mysterious man at the center of Aum Shinrikyo.  Asahara is a religious guru of sorts whose allure is never precisely honed in upon within Braun and Yanagimoto’s documentary.  The massive influx of power, money and influence that Shoko Asahara managed to accrue is nicely detailed, but if there is a notifiable shortcoming in AUM: The Cult at the End of the World overlooks it is the film’s inability to recreate for audiences the toxic allure that the cult held over its tens of thousands of blinded members.  Employing a healthy dose of first person interviews, former cult members, their families and law enforcement, recount the disconcerting rise of Asahara’s compound in the shadow of Mount Fuji.  These first and second hand testimonials are impactful, but never quite satiate the desire to understand the draw that young Japanese men and women felt in the early 90’s.  With such limited availability of video having been captured from inside the Shinrikyo compound, the documentary is forced to piece together the details from beyond.  This approach will certainly appeal to fans of true crime, as it slowly unveils new revelations ultimately leading to a dramatic conclusion that satisfies one’s desire for resolution.  AUM: The Cult at the End of the World acts as a stern warning that no society is ever above the opportunistic manipulations of a cunning cult of personality.

Target Score: 6.5/10  Directors Ben Braun & Chiaki Yanagimoto use their bilingual documentary AUM: The Cult at the End of the World to shed a captivating light on the long gone, but never forgotten Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo.  Although the infamous misdeeds of the cult occurred more than 30 years ago, the documentary’s message feels more relevant now than ever.