Yamato (2005)

I saw this English subtitles on youtube. I have read the commentating about the non propogandic value. My own family history Latvian side has some of most brutal irony a nephew served in the uniform of the nation that had his own uncle as an inmate. That young man was old and his youngest brother yet to be born in WWII competed the last USA V USSR before the wall fell in flying competition. There were some elements the need to honor the dead. My grandmothers ashes were spread at Visby.I do have the following beefs nothing about what Japan did in China explained its all glossed over. The irony that even the Battlefield documentary series pointed out the surrendering wounded Japanese pulling the pin on hand gernades at Gaudacanal. Is not mentioned. The actions of Japan forced the bombing they scared the (exp deleted) out of.Hard to do real action full size without plans. It did also omit the fact the crew heard radio transmissions of kamikazes making final dives.Interesting piece on the Japanese mindset about WWII kind of schizophrenic about what it did. As Tejano I have com to terms with the darker sides of my Latino heritage as well. Latvian/Latino (I am a product of the US Army)

I am almost through a great book on the history of Japan in WWII. The naval battles are fascinating to read about, and so when I saw this movie in the local Asian mall I picked it up.Yamato (the old name for Japan) has good and bad points. Starting with the good - I find the story fascinating, how the remainder of the Second fleet made a run for Okinawa on a mission that everyone knew was suicide due to lack of air support (Japan's air force had been finally crushed at Saipan). Some of the acting was great; I thought Uchida really stood out. As far as I can tell the film was very historically accurate. Some of the insights into "bushido" were interesting, especially the admiral's explanation of bushido vs. English chivalry. And some of the effects were pretty good too.On the bad side... the film had kind of a made-for-TV movie feel. As I said, some of the effects were good, others were far from great. The director shied away from showing the large sections of the ship, or the whole ship, maybe because of lack of budget - but I found myself really wanting to see those shots of this 65,000 ton superbattleship. It was obvious the whole film was made in a studio. They really should have invested in substantial steel tubes for the anti-aircraft guns, the fact that they jittered around like toys bothered me. Also in the silent dialog scenes, there should have been an omnipresent rumble of the ship's engines to add to the illusion that we are on the largest battleship in the world.It wasn't great, but I enjoyed it anyway, and anyone else who is interested in Japanese naval history I think will also enjoy it despite its shortcomings.

I will write this review as a researcher of film culture(mainly, Russian, but not only). Apparently,this film is made as a "War Anniversary film". At the same time, it is made as a blockbuster,by which the company TOEI intended to redeem its status of Japanese Major film company(2500 million yen is not at all a normal budget for contemporary Japanese cinema.Kurosawa's "Ran" was made with almost the same budget 20 years ago,when the the situation of the industry was still better, as a co-production with France).In spite of such risky budget,TOEI didn't think of world sales at all. If compare with "Sun(Solntse)" by Alexander Sokurov,from the beginning international product and a "festival film", this risk seems incredible--10 times higher cost and gamble-like dependence on domestic consumption.We must keep in mind that such "War Anniversary films", even in Russia,where the government gives donation to filmmakers maximum to 70% of the budget,with intention of participation in world market and festivals, rarely can be "correct" from political point of view. I'm talking about "SVOI"(2004),which failed to participate in Canne and "Zvezda"(2002),which seems too pathetic and patriotic to be international. Japanese government never donate to any films more than 30% of the budget,which is rather cruel condition for non-Hollywood national films.So the task of director-writer Junya Sato, I think, was very, very difficult. He must have expected the reactions of all generations of Japanese nation,and make the film's "correctness" level as high as possible, not invoking any misunderstanding from any political organizations. And of course,as a veteran craftsman director,his film must have surely return the money to production company.As a results this film is a little eclectic;the story clearly tells the meaninglessness of the huge battleship strategy and meaningless death of many people, but some scenes are accompanied by heroic march,solders and officers seem at first naive militarists, after some time turn into absolutely sincere lovers, sons and brothers, who, in the end clearly know the nonsense of the last attack.The craftsmanship, with which Sato achieved expected results, is worthy of admiration. The idea of the film, and the conditions of its production, from the first didn't guarantee any well-made war film. He made his best, and we can see that the tension in directing is very high.

Screenplay of this movie (of course in Japanese) is excellent and I was enough convinced by its story - why we are living, who fought for the country. It was great tragedy that only 15-17 years old boys required to fight in the war without knowing the meaning/reason of life. This movie (or original book written by Jun Henmi) is now my recommendation to know there were people who fought for our country.I am not racist nor nationalist. I also am not right wing. I oppose to any wars by any mean. But, I respect the men who fought for us and it is sad that we don't know much about the fact we are living on where these men protected.I voted this as "5" for actors/actress are not that super... Theme song as the same... Understanding they did their best, but level of acting is miserable. The battle scenes are great.Sometime it's too stereotype to illustrate the story (ie. Geisha & Japanese Gamble ... that's almost the all the Japanese movie does).