Shinya Tsukamoto Unveils Rodney Hicks, Geoffrey Rush Vietnam War Drama

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Cult Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto has unveiled first images and more details for his long-gestated, English-language debut Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? starring Rodney Hicks and Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush.

Broadway star Hicks appears in his first big screen lead role as real-life, late African American Vietnam War veteran Allen Nelson who returned from the conflict with the severe PTSD, winding up on the streets before crossing paths with Dr. Daniels (Rush) from the Veterans Affairs who set about trying to save him.

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

This cross-border production, shot on location in the U.S., Thailand, Vietnam and Japan, follows in the wake of Tsukamoto’s war-themed, Japanese-language films Fires On The Plain (2014), and Shadow Of Fire (2023). The director broke out with cult classic Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), with other films including Killing which competed in Venice in 2018.

Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? is produced and distributed by Kinoshita Group’s production and distribution company Kino Films, which scored the best international box office for Oscar-nominated drama Conclave in 2025 with a $7.87 million gross and is now gearing up to launch Michael Jackson biopic Michael in June.

”When I was adapting Fires of the Plain for the screen, I read a wide range of materials and books, but the most terrifying work of nonfiction I encountered was ‘Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?’,” said Tsukamoto

“Allen Nelson killed many people during the Vietnam War. He was plagued by the aftermath of the war for the rest of his life. This book, in which he poured out his crimes and the life that followed without holding anything back, has stayed with me ever since and is deeply etched in my heart.”

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

Instead, he found himself confronted with a terrifying and gruesome experience in which he was forced to kill on sorties into villages infiltrated by the Viet Cong, where men, women, and children of all ages were treated as suspects.

Returning home at the age of 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 rehabilitation path was giving talks about this experiences and the true human cost of war and he devoted his later life to speaking out on why war is never 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, which is his final resting place.

Tsukamoto said it had taken him years to figure out how to tackle Nelson’s life, even if he felt such a portrait was timely.

“When I imagined what this would be like as a film, it struck me as something the world desperately needs right now: an understanding of 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 far too difficult, and I could come up with endless reasons to run away from the idea. Every time I tried to delve into that story, the darker side of human nature was laid bare to the point of nausea, and I felt immense pain. Yet my body, driven by the determination to bring this project to fruition, never stopped moving, forgetting to rest.

“Indeed, the process of making it into a film proved extremely difficult, and the conflicting emotions, the urge to create it and the desire to run away, continued for seven years until its completion. In today’s world, where conflicts are raging in various places, I’ve come to feel this reality more acutely than ever.”

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