Shinya Tsukamoto Reveals Rodney Hicks, Geoffrey Rush Vietnam War Drama

Cult Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto has revealed the first images and more details about his long-gestating English-language debut. Mr. Nelson, Did He Kill People? starring Rodney Hicks and Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush.

Broadway star Hicks appears in his first on-screen role as the real-life, African-American Vietnam War veteran Allen Nelson who returned from the conflict with severe PTSD, passed out on the streets before crossing paths with Dr. Daniels (Rush) of Veterans Affairs who first tried to save him.

Tatyana Ali ((The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) she plays Nelson’s wife, while big screen newcomer Mark Murphy, plays a young Allen Nelson in flashbacks.

This frontier production, shot on location in the US, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan, follows Tsukamoto’s war-themed, Japanese-language films. Fires on the Plains (2014), and Shadow of Fire (2023). The director came up with a cult classic Tetsuo: Man of Steel (1989), and other films including Killing which competed in Venice in 2018.

Mr. Nelson, Did He Kill People? is produced and distributed by Kinoshita Group’s production and distribution company Kino Films, which received the best international box office Oscar-nominated drama Conclave in 2025 with a net worth of 7.87 million and is now preparing to launch a Michael Jackson biopic Michael in June.

”When I was adapting Plains Fires on the screen, I read a variety of things and books, but the most terrifying work of fiction I encountered was ‘Mr. Nelson, Did you kill people?’,” said Tsukamoto

“Allen Nelson killed many people during the Vietnam War. He suffered from the effects of the war for the rest of his life. This book, in which he reveals his crimes and the life that followed without holding anything back, has stayed with me ever since and is embedded in my heart.”

Born into a poor family in New York, Nelson joined the Marine Corps at age 18 to escape discrimination and poverty. After serving at Camp Hansen in Okinawa, he was sent to Vietnam in 1966, believing he was destined for military glory.

Instead, he found himself faced with a terrifying and horrific experience where he was forced to kill in villages overrun by the Viet Cong, where men, women, and children of all ages were treated as suspects.

When he returned home at age 23 with severe PTSD, Nelson was homeless for a time until Dr. Daniels from the Veterans Affairs Hospital came into his life. Part of Nelson’s method of rehabilitation was giving speeches about this experience and the true human cost of war and he devoted his later life to talking about why war is not the answer.

Nelson had a special connection with Japan. He returned to Okinawa in 1996 to talk about his experiences and would go on to give hundreds of lectures across the country, his final resting place.

Tsukamoto said it took him years to figure out how to deal with Nelson’s life, even if he feels a picture like this is timely.

“When I thought about what this would be like as a film, it struck me as something the world needs most right now: understanding what war is, how it changes people, and the impact it has on those around them,” he said.

“At the same time, I came up with excuses to avoid facing such terrifying thoughts. Adapting this into a film seemed too difficult, and I could find endless reasons to escape from this idea. Every time I tried to delve into that story, the dark side of human nature was exposed to the point of nausea, and I felt great pain, however, because of my determination, it did not stop the movement of my body. I forgot to rest.

Indeed, the process of making it into a film was very difficult, and the conflicting emotions, the desire to create it and the desire to escape, continued for seven years until it was finished.

The announcement is timed to coincide with National Vietnam War Veterans Day in the US on March 29. Check out some first images from the film below.

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