The gas terror inflicted on innocent citizens by the Aum Shinrikyo (a religious cult) has been called the single biggest religion-related crime in Japan. But the members of Aum Shinrikyo committed many other crimes besides the gas terror-including abduction, imprisonment and murder. However, the Japanese media failed to investigate the actual members of the Aum and what made them carry out these actions. In his prior film A, director Mori focused on the people behind these acts and depicted the incident from a viewpoint of its adherents, criticizing the one-sided reports of the media and the society′s willingness to believe whatever they were told, specifically, the equation: Aum = the enemy of the people. Three years after the incident, the director returns with A2. What the director captures this time are various human relationships surrounding the Aum Shinrikyo and the face of the Japanese society in its dealings with the phenomenon. After the incident, as the movement for eradication of the cult grows, the believers of the cult wander about. Ironically, in an area where the friction is the most extreme, local citizens and the believers form a relationship of common ownership. And the local citizens begin to realize that, what they perceived through the media was not all there was to the Aum Shinrikyo. (Shion Yang)