Genocidal Organ

Featuring photorealistic animation, this 2017 dystopian thriller is a visually compelling anime film with striking locations that provide a nice respite from futuristic battle sequences that have the busy graphics of a video game and include plenty of bloodshed. Genocidal Organ is essentially a military-spy movie about a U.S. soldier named Shepherd, who is programmed not to feel fear in dangerous situations and is performing black operations following the nuclear destruction of Sarajevo. With the world's major powers hunkered down in repressive surveillance states, Shepherd is assigned a mission to go undercover to find a mysterious man who might be behind the genocidal violence in numerous Third World countries. That adventure leads to various twists and turns, and along the way writer-director Shuko Murase demonstrates an earnest if superficial interest in name-checking important thinkers (e.g., Kafka) and historic tragedies (the Holocaust) to give the story meaningful resonance. But it takes a fair amount of intellectual energy just to follow the overly-complicated plot, let alone muse on the human condition. Presented in separate dual-language DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo editions, rated TV-MA, extras include a cast discussion. Optional. (T. Keogh)