{"id":82281,"date":"2026-09-05T01:28:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=82281"},"modified":"2026-09-05T01:28:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:28:59","slug":"review-venice-2026-mr-nelson-did-you-kill-people-is-a-haunting-vietnam-war-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=82281","title":{"rendered":"Review | Venice 2026: Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? is a haunting Vietnam war drama"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/09\/04\/8aaaedb6-bc18-4864-ae6a-cffbe53675ed_9f4a253b.jpg?itok=xnabqWgc&amp;v=1788502573\" \/><\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\"><strong data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa17\">4\/5 stars<\/strong><\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe were taught to treat Asians like they were less than human,\u201d says Allen Nelson in <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?<\/em>, a true-life drama about a former US Marine faced with a reckoning.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Screening in competition at this year\u2019s <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Venice International Film Festival<\/span>, this often powerful work is based on Nelson\u2019s memoir of the same name. Somewhat surprisingly, Shinya Tsukamoto, the cult Japanese director behind <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Tetsuo: The Iron Man<\/em> (1989) and <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Bullet Ballet<\/em> (1998), adapted it in what is only his second English-language production.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">As the end credits tell us, this New Yorker was buried in Japan; in that country alone, he gave more than 1,200 talks about his horrifying experiences in the Vietnam war. How he reaches the point of being able to share his trauma is the film\u2019s true focus.<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"methode-html-wrapper oembed-wrapper e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"e2gky7d0 e1drg7e30 e1ciypty0 ehdmpxk0 css-1avyp1d e1hpd36k0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<div class=\"e1hpd36k3 css-79hwxn e1x11wau0\" data-qa=\"SCMPYouTubeVideoFooter-VideoTitleContainer\"><default:svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"24\" height=\"25\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 25\" fill=\"none\" data-qa=\"SCMPYouTubeVideoFooter-StyledVideoRecorder\" class=\"css-1nnwg93 e1x11wau1\"><default:path fill-rule=\"evenodd\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M22 6.22926V18.4315L17.5463 13.9868V17.8655C17.5463 18.1618 17.4383 18.4248 17.2228 18.6531C17.0067 18.8829 16.7498 18.9967 16.4537 18.9967H3.13414C2.80989 18.9967 2.53968 18.8829 2.32425 18.6531C2.10808 18.4248 2 18.1618 2 17.8655V6.79519C2 6.49893 2.10808 6.23665 2.32425 6.00688C2.53968 5.77858 2.80989 5.66333 3.13414 5.66333H16.4537C16.7498 5.66333 17.0067 5.77858 17.2228 6.00688C17.4383 6.23665 17.5463 6.49893 17.5463 6.79519V10.674L22 6.22926Z\" fill=\"#001246\"\/><\/default:svg><\/p>\n<p>Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?\uff3fOfficial Trailer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">It starts with a young Nelson (Mark Merphy) sleeping rough in an abandoned building after returning from Southeast Asia. A chance encounter leads an old school friend to implore him to speak to the children she teaches about his time overseas. Barely able to utter a word, he is left floored when a girl asks the very question that forms the film\u2019s title.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Elegantly weaving elements of Nelson\u2019s life before, during and after Vietnam, the film asks not if he killed, but why. This question certainly occupies his therapist, Dr Daniels (Geoffrey Rush), whose sessions with the older Nelson (Rodney Hicks) provide the backbone of the story.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/entertainment\/article\/3366337\/venice-2026-mr-nelson-did-you-kill-people-haunting-vietnam-war-drama?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>4\/5 stars \u201cWe were taught to treat Asians like they were less than human,\u201d says Allen Nelson in Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?, a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[8816,7001,9514,27797,121,28,13216,4619,3544],"class_list":["post-82281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-drama","tag-haunting","tag-kill","tag-nelson","tag-people","tag-review","tag-venice","tag-vietnam","tag-war","wpcat-33-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/82282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}