User Reviews

It has been 4 years since Nakai Masahiro's last acting job, and he was forced to wear a hat for months after filming this movie (because he had to shave his head). His performance in this film is inconsistent, as he was totally himself in few scenes, but he handled the dramatic scenes very well in my opinion. There are many big-name veteran actors in the cast, as well as fellow SMAP member, Kusanagi Tsuyoshi.

The cinematography of this film is very beautiful, with stunning sceneries of all seasons. Overall good direction, and some memorable and touching scenes.

The story is a bit right-wing though, with American war court portrayed as extremely evil and unfair, but I guess it's true the winner of wars write the history. One thing that really bothered me was that the ending seemed to be really rushed. Everything was going well for the protagonist, then out of blue, he was executed. I felt this movie could've developed the story better in the end about the sudden sentencing.

Had a chance to watch this, I like Nakai as an entertainer, wanted to see how he is at acting, my opinion is it's not very satisfying but still he's a good entertainer, so that's still good. Cinematography, it was extraordinary, especially the scene where Nakama is walking through snow to get signatures from people and she goes to the cliff to stare at the winter sea, wow, amazing. Some scenes, computer graphics are added to make the scenery look better, I don't think it was a good choice at all, it's very phony and ugly. Tsurube, his acting is totally brilliant, he surely is a very skilled man, didn't know he could act so well, it's unbelievable.... I hope I get to see more of his acting in the future. Story is very obvious but interesting, what a life, all he wants to do is live a happy life with his family, cut people's hair, then the rich, fascist pigs want the poor to go to war for them, so they can get more money, THEN they hang the private for following an order, an order that he is required to follow, if he disobeys, he will be shot, hell of a decision to make. There certainly were many fxxers who used the war to let out their evil, which they certainly deserve so much more than a death sentence but it is true that there were many people who didn't want anything to do with the war, hurt other people, people who just wanted to live in peace but were forcefully drafted by the fascist pigs. Nobody wins in war other than the rich and greedy fxxers who caused it.

Probably the most irritating of phrases in Japanese for me is the above, translatable as 'When it comes down to it Japanese people are (insert complimentary adjective of your choice). In other words confirmation of self-image by selective cherry picking of 'facts', narratives and opinions.

If nonsense like this film was made in Germany there would be some serious debate about the politics behind its creation. 'The Reader' or 'Letters from Iwo Jima' make this film look like a tale told by an idiot. For anybody out there who is wondering why I dislike this film so much I'll go over the salient clichés that have been bolstering prejudice and self-pity in Japanese war films since 1951.

1. Focus on the end of the war 2. No mention of the origins of the Pacific war, or Japanese aggression in China 3. Central figure is an innocent with no malicious intent 4. Central figure endures suffering, but has never intentionally caused harm to others 5. Non-Japanese are portrayed as unreasonable and brutish 6. Wide shot of destruction of Japanese cities that directly show, or reference the atomic bomb

The level of self-deception and basic dishonesty about WWII in Japan is stupefying, and just to put this into perspective, Britain, which I love as my home country, and the US, are experts at glossing over unpleasant instances of their savagery. But at least there is plenty of room for discovering and showing historical realities.

2 out of 10 because some of the cinematography was pretty good.