'Good'

As far as movies about Nazi Germany go, "Good" belies its title and sits fidgeting on a terrain somewhere between so-so and inoffensive. But 15 years ago a story like "Good" would have been called daring — even revolutionary — for it ventures beyond caricatured depictions of monstrous Nazis and the horrors of concentration camps to examine the process by which a supposedly "good" man joins the Nazi Party. The film was released in the United States in 2008 to a lukewarm reception; lead actor Viggo Mortensen has since then moved on, and films such as "The Reader" and "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" have given us windows into truly extraordinary stories from the era.

Why the Japanese distributor has chosen this time to show "Good" remains an enigma — the timing could hardly benefit box office. On the other hand, "Good" may strike a chord with many Japanese: It is essentially the story of an ordinary nice guy who makes the wrong choices, is gathered into an evil system, and is then too indecisive to correct his mistakes. The scenario is achingly familiar to us, from World War II to the rupture of the bubble economy and most recently in observing the government dealing with the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis. Painful.

Mortensen plays John Halder, a literature professor in 1930s Berlin. John is a devoted dad to his young sons and an obliging son to his mother (Gemma Jones), who is ailing from senile dementia. His uncommunicative and neurotic wife (Anastasia Hille) won't help — she's in need of medical attention herself and is basically blind to everything but her piano.