I have become quite a fan of Ken Watanabe. And with Ken-
san's latest incarnation as Lt.GEN Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Million Dollar 'Harry' Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima, the suave
jepun has sealed his place in Hollywood's A-list for sure.
Letters From Iwo Jima, unlike Flags of our Fathers, tells the story of the island's bloody fall from the Japanese perspective. But since I did not catch Flags (because I heard it was draggy and boring), I can't say which one is better. Moreover, I am no military historian and even if I had caught both movies, I won't know which one gives the more accurate and balanced account.
But no matter, Letters was a great show to catch. Depressing, like all war movies with blood, gore and human-to-human combat in copious amounts, but very moving no less.
The charasmatic Kuribayashi arrives to take charge of the Japanese Garrison on Iwo Jima not knowing that it would be his final assignment as a soldier of the Imperial Japanese Army. Only after he arrives and when his friend, fellow soldier and 1932 Olympic Equestrian Gold-medallist Lt.COL Takeichi Nishi (played by Tsuyoshi Ihara) tells him that the Japanese Combined Fleet has been totally decimated at the Battle of the Leyte Gulf, does the General realise that the odds are stacked impossibly against him and his men, being more or less devoid of crucial air and sea cover.
And so begins a fearful and morale-zapping journey of getting the garrison ready for the impending American Armada. On the General's instructions, the troops abandon their original beach defences for cave-digging in the highlands. Most important of which was Mount Suribachi, that famous mountain where a group of US soldiers eventually hoisted the Stars and Stripes after they took control of the island and where an iconic photo was captured that became
THE photo that represented the war in the Pacific.
Watanabe is supported by an excellent cast of young Japanese actors. Most notably Kazunari Ninomiya, a member of Japanese boy-band Arashi, as army Private Saigo. Kazunari plays the part of the reluctant conscipt torn between his love for his wife and duty to his emperor with a sizeable dollop of conviction. He is so endearing in his
gabra own way that I actually didn't want him to get riddled with machine-gun fire or have a grenade explode in his face. Which incidentally was what happened to many of his regiment-mates. Handsome Ryo Kase plays Shimizu, a fresh graduate of the
Kempeitei Academy kicked out and re-assigned to a deployment on Iwo Jima just after 5 days on the job as a member of the much feared Japanese Secret Military Police. He's a good boy you see, too good to be out terrorizing the folks back home with the notorious
Kempeitei. After being suspected of having been sent to spy on the troops on Iwo Jima, Shimizu eventually strikes up a good friendship with Saigo as they thread the perilous journey leopard-crawling and bullet-dodging together.
I suppose like all good movies, Letters does not take sides. The Americans are not made to look like crass, burger-chomping savages. Neither are the Japanese made to look like a couple of mindless
Kamikaze Ninjas bent on Banzai-ing their way through when everything is lost. Like all good war movies, we are shown that in times of such bitter and brutal conflict, there can be no good that comes out from the bloody mess. Inside every soldier, American or Japanese, is someone's son, brother, husband or father. And from the letters that the soldiers send and receive from back home, the universality of kinship ties is manifested so evidently.
The power of Eastwood's story-telling is when you find yourself showing so much sympathy, empathy and fear on the Japanese soldiers' behalf. No mean feat for a generation of South-East Asians, whose ancestors were tortured by the Japs and bred on a diet of heroic movies showing the Nipponese getting their arses kicked back to Tokyo by the Allied War Juggernaut.
So
kudos Mr Eastwood, I'll give your latest effort a 8/10.
Labels: Movies