Shown at the New York Film Festival in 1972, Summer Soldiers was controversial for its sensitive subject matter, the Vietnam war, even though it is "an antiwar film thousands of miles from any battlefront, in terms of culture shocks, the psychology of loneliness and people working at cross-purposes with the best of intentions." (Vincent Canby, New York Times) Like many characters in Teshigahara's films of the sixties, the protagonist here is a man who has disappeared. A deserter from the U.S. Army after witnessing the brutal killing of civilians, Jim seeks refuge in Japan. Trapped by laws that prevent his leaving the country yet offer no official asylum, he is dependent upon the antiwar sympathizers who offer clandestine shelter in their homes. With quiet humor Teshigahara observes the attitudes of these "host families," as they are termed in a Japanese radical handbook, and the cultural misunderstandings that arise between them and the exotic young foreigner.