Otoko-tachi no Yamato (2005) Online

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 am so disappointed to see some posters turning their reviews into cold historical commentary. Did this film not teach you anything? I couldn't help but be immensely moved by this film. It steers well clear of overly political and historical commentary and focuses on the young sailors and their loved ones. The hardship of the Japanese in the second world war was not unlike any other nations' peoples' hardship. Their loved ones went to war and never returned; they lost their livelihoods and what they loved; they were powerless to the whims of their leaders.

This film shows People. People in tragic times. People fighting for their loves and their lives. Whether it is Yamato, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Brotherhood, Stone's trilogy, Eastwood's duo of films, etc, it comes down to people trying to live. So much has been said about the film that is political but I ask you, what is the point of doing so for a film that strove so hard to in favour of a human story? After years of revisionist Hollywood war films, it is ironic that this moving film, Yamato, be raked over coals for inaccuracies or romanticism.

Besides this, however, and a technical note, the film's visual effects are excellent for a non-Hollywood film. I wouldn't be surprised if Yamato was one of the most expensive Japanese films ever made. While making an ocean going battleship replica was not an option, the sets, miniatures and CGI create a very gritty and realistic feeling of being aboard the fated ship.

Musically the film is also very striking and has some memorable themes throughout. The sound track is also superb with excellent separation in the 5.1 channels. The battle scenes are especially vivid in their aural presentation.

The amount of heart, work and effort that went into the film is clear from the exceptional cast, sound and competent visuals and their passionate and honest performances and work. This is definitely a film for the world to see. It is not a war film about "war"; it is a film about love. The message rings loud and clear until the final note of the closing credit's song.

I am an American PhD student based in both Japan and Micronesia doing extensive fieldwork with the survivors of the Pacific War in the Pacific Islands and Japan--as well as the families of war dead. Since I have been really involved most recently with the families of soldiers and sailors who died in the Pacific, I naturally wanted to see this movie.

I found myself with tears in my eyes from the very beginning, because it was as if all the black and white photographs I have been generously shown by these families were coming to life--the young faces of these sailors, frightened, proud, and eager to live up to their responsibilities, were very true to what I sense was really happening in the 1940s.

I have to say, unlike the very propagandist flavor of many American films about the Pacific War, including most recently 'Pearl Harbor,' this film really delves into the traumatic aspects of masculinity in general and having to live up to "being a man" in Japan just as much as it celebrates the humanity of the people involved. Many American films, with the exception of 'Saving Private Ryan' and several films about Vietnam, tend to stick to very comic-like stark depictions of heroes and villains and an overall sense of being "victimized" by the enemy. Here, the enemy is not the United States but rather masculinity and male pride itself, as well as the whole tragic story they create.

As such, it is a welcome remedy to way too much American-biased victory narratives that obscure the face of the Japanese military, and to films that portray menacing, dehumanized battalions of Japanese soldiers advancing forth without any legitimate context of their own. We see in this film the faces of these young men and understand what situation they were coming from.

That said, clearly the film was trying to be sensitive to war bereaved and to the official narratives of Japanese pretexts for war, and in that sense I feel they overdid it a little. We don't get a sense, for instance, about Japan's colonial presence throughout Asia and the Pacific--only the vague notion that Japan somehow got involved in war. Still, this isn't really a film about why the war happened, but rather about how it was to live and fight in the immediate time preceding Japanese surrender. In that sense, I do want to make the critique that this film really could have done with even MORE contextualization and solid research of popular Japanese culture at the time, because this would have added even more to its convincing sense of reality. For instance, the soundtrack would have been greatly enhanced with some of the evocative marching music and the ballads on the radio in the 1930s and 1940s that encouraged young men to join the navy and go south to the South Seas.

These songs are still sung even by the bereaved families who go back to visit the places where their loved ones died, so it would have been quite powerful if we got to hear them throughout the film. The absence of small details like this, some rather poorly-imitated Japanese regional dialects, and some of the melodramatic overacting by a few members of the cast, detracted somewhat from the overall production. But in general, this is a very fine film, extremely well acted (and compassionately so) by its cast.

I have been reading a book about the film in Japanese and it's fascinating to learn how so many of the cast worked directly with Japanese veterans and the bereaved families in order to develop their characters and their behavior. So in many respects this film is not only based on the realities of battle (which are really just the backdrop) but on the real life realities of war and on being a young man in the Japanese Imperial Navy in 1944-1945.

In all, it's an extremely meaningful film that needs to be distributed widely through the world. I know there is a lot of resistance to its release in China and Korea, understandably, but I think this is a portrait of what was going on for Japanese at the time and as such could even work as a tool to facilitate better understanding in these countries. It is essential that more compassionate films like this are made that go on to address the complexity and horror of what happened in Asia and the Pacific-- to the people whose lives were colonized and ruined by Japanese aggression, but at least it's a start. It appears to me that Japanese popular culture is finally ready to address the war in all of its ugliness and begin to heal some of these old wounds.

I guess the ambition of this film is to show the personal drama taking place alongside the big drama of the last ditch demise of the great "Yamato", and from this point of view the film performs well but expectable. There is the tragedy of young lives being lost for a lost cause, the psychological wounds of the survivors that never heals. There's also the mandatory journey to the spot of the disaster made on an anniversary by one of the survivors and a daughter to another, maybe inspired by J. Cameron's "Titanic". Factually, though, the film is a failure. It would of course be impossible to make a replica of the ship, so it has been recreated digitally, and to excellent effect in the few scenes you actually view the whole ship, or most of it, making its way through the seas. Those moments alone are worth the price of the ticket. But the budget didn't cover much more than that. The mock-up of certain parts of the ship look just like mock-up, we don't even get to know about one light cruiser and several destroyers that followed "Yamato" to disaster (most of them were also sunk) and we don't see one single US ship (aircraft from at least 12 American aircraft carriers participated in fending off the Japanese). What's worse, we are not told how the battle developed or what tactics were used by the Japanese task force nor by the US air squadrons. The great battleship was eventually sunk after being hit by many torpedoes and several big, armor-piercing bombs, but most of what we see is low flying US aircraft strafing the crew and hitting the decks with small caliber ordnance, causing incredible carnage. The strafing did take place on several occasions during the day, the ship was also hit by small rockets from F4U Corsair fighters, but it all had marginal effect. The huge 456 mm guns are seen firing away towards the approaching aircraft, and while this in fact did happen, one couldn't stay exposed on deck, as the enormous blast would probably kill or at least severely injure you, so crew were forbidden on the outside on such occasions. All in all, the never-ending screams of dying seamen don't make up for the lack of most of other angles of this last major battle of WWII. All in all, some 3000 Japanese lives were lost on the "Yamato" alone, plus more than a thousand more on the accompanying ships, without disturbing the US Okinawa operations in any way. Some figures are mentioned in the film but the tragedy of this sacrifice in not fully pointed out. During the day the US lost 12 airmen and 10 airplanes.

This is a great movie. It refutes the shallow, stereotypical portrayal of Japanese in World War Two American movies. When considering atrocities such as The Bataan Death March, it is easy to say, "Good for them, they deserved what they got." Yet, the movie is about Japanese valor. The question is: is it contrived or was it real? Here, the roles are reversed. The Japanese are heroes and the Americans the faceless enemy. The Yamato went down fighting; en entire fleet pf plans were required to sink her, and when she sunk, she went out with a huge bang - that is a fact. The movie dramatizes the dedication and bravery of the Japanese sailor and the steadfast valor of the civilians. The movie is not a polemic. It neither excuses or apologizes Japanese policies. Of course, one can say that this movie does not square with the Japanese record of brutality during the war. But that does not mean that the themes of this movie are contrived. The Japanese government ordered the Yamato on a kamikaze mission. Whether this was heroic is a matter of debate. But what is certain is that the ship took a beating and 3,000 crew died, and that is a story that should not be forgotten. They fought and they died. As the movie shows, the Japanese were caught up in a war that produced a catastrophic defeat for them. It is just too bad that they had adopted a foreign policy that in retrospect was misguided and provocative, but it happened and hopefully it will not happen again.

A few other comments: This movie alludes to but does not fully expand on how the Yamato was a symbol, not only for the Japanese, but for the United States. While the Yamato symbolized Japanese pride, for the United States it was symbol of aggression, and something that not only had to be destroyed but absolutely purged from the face of the planet. Hence, the United States devoted an entire fleet of planes to ensuring that the Yamato met an ignoble ending. The movie shows that how the Yamato was not only bombed, but was repeatedly strafed and torpedoed. According to historical accounts, the Yamato took at least twenty direct hits. What the movie also brings out was that the Yamato was on a kamikaze mission, so it was provided no air cover, which made it a virtual open target. The Yamato crew are portrayed as being valiant, but valiant for what and for whom? One scene shows where a fight breaks out between two factions, one who questioned the use of fighting and the other that was determined to fight on. However, this theme is not further explored. The whole question of treating 3,000 men as being expendable is a theme that could have been further explored too. The sinking of the Yamato should have provided enough cause for any rational government to conclude that further fighting was useless, but that did not happen. The war destined to drag on for another four months, during which time there took place the Battle of Okinawa and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all of which had catastrophic consequences for the Japanese. The movie also shows how discipline was enforced through corporal punishment, which puts the Japanese abuse of POWs in a broader cultural context. For the Japanese, at least in the military, beating up on people considered inferior was considered appropriate conduct and a legitimate form of discipline. Given the fanaticism of the Japanese military, it is not surprising that it took not one but two atomic bombs to finally convince them to stop fighting, and that was only after the emperor personally interceded. As the movie shows, World War Two was a disaster for Japan, and a tragedy for the Japanese people who had to pay the price for policy decisions that opened their country up to destruction and leaving a legacy that to this day continues to besmirch that country's reputation.

The destruction of the giant battleship by overwhelming Allied air power following the destruction from the air of 3 previous giant Axis battleships (Bismarck, Musashi and Tirpitz) was a gigantic tragedy of common enlisted soldiers defending their "fatherland".

The mission accomplished nothing but another one-sided slaughter of "obedient soldiers". This is the real tragedy of men educated for obedience. Germans and Japanese alike.

And they were killed with millions against overwhelming (and technically also superior) powers by an opportunistic and docile dictatorship, leaving behind millions of sorrowing wives and children which never saw much of their fathers.

Otoko-tachi no Yamato shows us the common Japanese soldiers as human beings. No propaganda at all, unlike so many US war movies.

Its counterpart was the German movie "Das Boot". The difference is that in Germany the process of showing World War II as it was started earlier than in Japan. Even the horrendous loss of the Wilhelm Gustloff (10.000 dead)has been shown in a movie on the German television recently. In Japan the horrors of WWII finally are being shown to the public. While Germany feels "very guilty" for many decades, this process in Japan not really has been started yet.

Huge scale tale of the battleship Yamato and its crew. from 1942 to its sinking. Told in flashback as memories are provoked in a survivor by a woman, the daughter of another survivor, wanting to visit the final resting place on the 60th anniversary of its sinking. This is a story of youthful idealism tinged and changed by the course of war and a culture that celebrates death in battle as something glorious. It examines why men fight and what can we hope to get out of war.

This is a very good and moving film. For all of the clichés (is there a well worn plot device it doesn't have?) it does manage to touch the heart and the head. We really do care about the characters we see up on the screen, and what happens to them, death in a foolish adventure, moves us. At the same time we get to see the waste that is war and was the Japanese war effort in the final days of World War Two. Its made clear that the fight to the end mentality leaves no room for tomorrow. Its best expressed in a simple scene on the bridge of the ship. One of the officers is asked to explain the difference between chivalry, the Western code of war, and Bushido, the Japanese code. Bushido, he says is preparing for a death with no reward, Chivalry is trying to live a noble life. Its a difference that all of the men can see but which very few ever get the chance to live by. Even the survivors, the old man essentially telling the story, is haunted by the fact that he lived and everyone else died.As the film asks plainly, if we all die, who's going to be around to take advantage of our sacrifices? Its a question that needs to be asked in this age of suicide bombers. There is a great many other thematic threads running through this film that lift it out of the typical war movie pile.

The cast is top notch. They manage to take what is often a clichéd script and to infuse it with the power of reality. Modern sequences aside, you care for these people and you are moved by what happens to them. The tears that well up in the final modern scenes come from the fact that the cast of the war sections is so good that you carry over the emotion. I wish that the modern sequences had given the actors something to do other than simply push the story into action.

Technically the film is very impressive. The Yamato, is monster of a ship and its plain to see that great care was taken in recreating it. Its a beautiful movie to look at with the entire film having a wonderful sense of place and time. The two battle scenes are graphic in a way that I've never seen in a naval war film (if you don't like blood you may want to look elsewhere.) This is going to be something to rattle the windows with on DVD.

If the film has any real flaw thats its length. The film is about two and a half hours long and to be honest it probably could have been shorter. I was getting fidgety during some of it. Its not that its bad, its just that the films pace allows you too much time to dwell on some of the by the numbers construction of the plot so you just want the film to get to the next bit (what another tearful goodbye?). It doesn't kill the film, it just makes it hard to truly get lost in the story.

If you like war films, or good movies this is one to keep an eye out for. Just be ready to do a little digging since I'm not sure if this is going to get a regular release outside of Asia.

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).

On April, 6th 2005, in Makurazi, Kagoshima, Makiko Uchida (Kyôka Suzuki) seeks a boat in the local fishing cooperative to take her to the latitude N30, longitude L128, where the largest, heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed Yamato was sunk on April, 7th 1945; however, her request is denied. She meets by chance the captain Katsumi Kamio (Tatsuya Nakadai) of the fishing vessel Asukamaru and discloses that she is the stepdaughter of Officer Nagoya Uchida (Shidô Nakamura) and Kamio immediately accepts to take her in the risky journey. While traveling with Makiko and the fifteen year-old Atsuchi (Sosuke Ikematsu), Kamio recalls and discloses the story of Yamato and his close friends that served on board of the battleship until the final suicidal mission in Okinawa. When they reach the spot where Yamato was sunk, he considers that he finally reached the end of the Shōwa era.

"Otoko-tachi no Yamato" is a dramatic movie based on the true story of the Battleship Yamato in World War II. This film gives an approach of Japanese relationship in war totally different from the stereotype of American and European movies of this genre that usually treat Japanese soldiers as cold blood killers detached from any emotions. In "Yamato!", the Japanese military are human beings, with beloved ones, families and comradeship between them, giving more credibility to the story. However, director Junya Sato exaggerates in the melodramatic subplots and in many moments the viewer has the sensation of watching a soap-opera instead of a drama. The final battle of Yamato is engaging and one of the best moments of this film. The music score is repetitive and boring and I personally did not like it. Last but not the least, the Shōwa period mentioned by Katsumi Kamio in one of his last lines literally means, in accordance with the Wikipedia, "period of enlightened peace", or Shōwa era, is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito), from December 25th, 1926 to January 7th, 1989. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Yamato"

This is not the first time that I saw the sunk of Yamoto in Nippon movie. The precedent movie are "Rengo kantai" (1981), or additionally, some movie relative with Nippon naviation or 'Zero' fighter. With its poor battle result, the Yamoto was not more than a symbol of power, which main function was to satisfy people's adoration need, similar with the enthusiasm to sumotori of Japanese.

Though it praised the braveness of soldiers, it can't bear comparison with "Sink the Bismarck" (1960), in which the defeated Germany wined British's respect (It's ridiculous when a US veteran present his awedness to rival in the start and final of "Lorelei: The Witch of the Pacific Ocean" (2005)).

But this is not a historically narrative film. It also abandon the scanty criticism tradition of Japanese war movie before 90's. The tradition of vagueness of moral sense in Japanese movie is still there. No context was given to transmit the information about the cause to this tragedy, without which the sense of sacrifice to protect others is so pale. The script seemed to cater to the current civil circumstance. So this is a real "anniversary" movie within a predefined frame.

The cast were very good. Despite the unnaturalness of the plot corresponding to modern society, Tatsuya Nakadai is still my favorite actor. It's a pity that Japanese movie is losing its classic art orientation and international influence after the fade of masters directors.

The 3D effect is just so so, light is somewhat dim, and the color is always monotonously the hull's hue. Fortunately, the wave is no longer that appeared in old movie adopt the ship model. Music is better than "Lorelei: The Witch of the Pacific Ocean".

Here we have the epic tale of the battleship Yamamoto. This ship was eventually destroyed by a U.S. air strike off the coast of Okinawa; well over 2,000 crewmen went down with the ship, and most where new conscripts who were merely teenagers. While adhering to most factual details, the movie embellishes with dramatic tales of family and friends, lovers and mothers, the effect of which is intended to heighten the sense of tragedy over the loss of youthful lives. The viewer also witnesses the brutal discipline of the Japanese military of that era, replete with punishment and beatings for those who fail to meet the exacting service standards demanded by superior officers.

The young sailors are depicted as striving with gusto to serve in the capacity expected of them. The fact that all are deluded into thinking they are serving to protect Japan is left to modern historic sensibilities to recognize. No mention is made of the abhorrent brutality of the Japanese military in Asia. On the other hand, American airplanes attacking the ship are merely an impersonal airborne antagonist; the planes appear as nothing more than menacing vehicles streaming down from the sky in much the same manner as the Japanese aircraft in the American movie Pearl Harbor.

While one might argue the exaggerated masculinity that the Japanese military exhorted its members to assimilate led to the ruin of the young men, and this may be a central tragedy the movie sought to explore, the relish which most sailors seem to take in the fight does little to promote sympathy from the viewer. In cinematic terms, one strong point of the film is the Yamamoto's final battle where a grim and bloody onslaught, reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan, depicts the Yamamoto's denouement.

Another feature of the film: it is told in a limited "flash back" style. It begins with a young woman seeking to find the Yamamoto's grave on the anniversary of its sinking, (There is more than one debt the movie owes to Saving Private Ryan). The movie ends with the young woman and friends in a small boat saluting the dead at sea. While this scene, too, is calculated to yield a strong sentimental response from the audience, its most useful purpose is to show that the issues of World War II remain difficult for contemporary Japanese to accept and resolve. But surely the difficulty is much more than grappling with the results of a failed military adventure.

One very weak point of the movie is the fact that most of it was shot in a studio, something easily discernible. There is no out-at-sea feeling to the movie; scenes are shot too tightly to give the impression of being out in the open on a large vessel. The CGI effects are very poor, with the Yamamoto looking like a battleship on a video game display.

In spite of strong performances by a number of the actors here, the movie cannot escape its own limited scope--it will not attract viewers outside of Japan. It is a movie designed for Japanese, and one that asks a limited number of questions about that nation's tragic march to disaster.

Well First of all it's based on a true story about one of the greatest battle ship(yamato) of japan in the time on WWII. These people who fought during on the ship was about 15-18yrs old. yeah, of course there was people older than that but most of the people on board was really young. I'm Japanese and to me this movie was just amazing, the story line will touch your heart. the battle scene is pretty well done for Japanese movie too. it's way way way better than that movie "pearl harbor" that movie was trash. however, this movie is about how terrible a war really is. it does not matter if you are Japanese or not, the movie will def grab your heart and make you think how bad the war really is and how many people it will affect. just to let you know, when i went to watch this movie, no one left the movie theater until the whole end roll?(till the directors name came out) was over. this movie is just hot man. will not disappoint you at all, trust. peace, one love!

Recap: Katsumi Kamio is not very old, just 15 years old, but with his nation Japan in war he decides to follow his brother and join the Imperial Navy. He gets posted on the pride of the navy, the world's largest and most modern battleship Yamato. The young recruits are convinced and determine to change the tide of war with the powerful ship or die a glorious death with it. Unfortunately, although the ship is newly built it is hopelessly obsolete without a fighter escort. Kamio, posted as an anti-aircraft gunner sees this firsthand. 60 years later, the daughter of a friend from Yamato comes to Kamio and wants to hire Kamio and his boat to go to the location of the recently rediscovered Yamato. The trip is not only a trip out to ocean but also a trip back in history and Kamio's memories.

Comments: This is not a war-movie in that way that it focuses and follows the Yamato into battle and adrenalin-high scenes. No, this is the kind of war-movie that follows Kamio that finds himself on the Yamato and his friends, and the companionship that develops on the ship. The idea that to die a glorious death is foremost in almost everyone's minds, to bring glory to the country, the Navy and your family. To survive is shameful. Those two feelings, those ideas come to a hard collision when Yamato is sent on a final suicide mission to attack the invading American forces. Also the mission, as pointed out in the movie, the mission marks an end to an era, international and Japanese. Yamato was the crown in the line of battleships but hopelessly lost without air support.

This is a remembrance and a way to live with the effects of the Second World War. The bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not mentioned much but those, and all other deaths of the war hangs like a shadow over the movie.

Although it is not action-packed (although with a few blood-filled gruesome battles), quite long and the story known it never becomes dull. The companionship and the history of Kamio and his friends are really intriguing. And somehow you feel the weight of the movie, and it is definitely not only for Japanese.

6/10

I was prepared to watch, and be annoyed at, a typical sentimentally self-justifying movie about the brave and suffering Japanese, unfortunate victims in a war foisted upon them, ala nearly every TV drama I have ever seen touching on the war here in Japan. And, to some degree, this is such a movie.

That criticism noted, the film does not shirk much, certainly no more than some Hollywood Spielberg vehicle, from touching on some of the realities of the Yamato's story: the brutality of the discipline, the bitterness of the divide between the men who justifiably resented being sent on a useless suicide mission and those willing to fight to maintain the pretense it was anything else, and the unpleasant horror of the battle itself, which moved me deeply in that, whatever bravery was being shown, it had no even symbolic value.

The acting is good, the special effects passable (yet strangely effective because they were clearly effects), and the direction decent.

In its way I found it far, far moving effective in portraying war than the "we can be heroes" efforts of better Hollywood. No one would willingly support a war such as this.

Off topic? To speak up in this, hopefully very atypical, case, the voting on this movie, at this point, is a disgrace, with nearly all 1s and 10s. Why bother to grind the stupid Yamatodashii!/anti-Japan axes in such a pointless, if revealing fashion. 90% of the "reviewers" outta be ashamed of themselves.

On Dec 29 2005, I took my father-in-law (73 years old) to see this film--he is a bit of a military 'otaku' type and I expected a typical apologetic, war-glorifying TOEI effort. Wrong! -- this movie is _very_ good, hits you in the heart early on and never lets go. The battleship Yamato is the backdrop--what the film focuses on is the 17-18 year-old group of young sailors who did the dirty work on board the ship. Their interpersonal relationships, their girlfriends back home, their mothers--it is heart-rending. The battle scenes are unforgettable. The whole of the audience stayed till the last credits had rolled & left dewy-eyed. I myself went to see it again on Jan 2nd -- just to confirm I hadn't missed anything from the Japanese dialogue. See it! The West deserves an English sub-titled uncut version-- really... The best Japan-made movie I have ever seen!

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 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.

When was told that there is a movie about Yamato I decided to watch it immediately. Yamato was the greatest battleship of WWII and I was really excited about this movie and finally I was disappointed greatly.

The movie about the greatest battleship of WWII turned out to be a soap opera. More than 2/3 of a film is conversations of a crew and their relatives. I understand that Yamato is a historical memory for many Japanese families but nevertheless it was pride of Japanese Navy.

Personally I waited for a sea battles and unfortunately they came out to be messy and boring, i got a feeling that the Direcor had never shot battle scenes before. No camera on planes that was attacking Yamato, no camera on AA guns shooting American planes... I apologize for this review to Japanese audience but still there could be much better film about Yamato

I have avoided foreign films due subtitles all my 58 years, no more, films with them are as good as movies you don't need them for, don't be turned off due subtitles, "Yamato" ranks up there with Anne Frank's Diary, if your History oriented, this is my 1st subtitle film I watched straight threw, I now have seven others lined up to watch and will watch having gotten over the stigma of subs, if you felt some thing for Anne Franks story, please, please give in to this movie, you will not in any way be turned off due the subtitles unless your still stigmatized with the fact of reading and understanding what your watching, very few places in this one are you over whelmed with reading to understand, a very meaningful true or based on a true story movie, a very much must watch

I bought this film not knowing anything about the history of the Japanese battleship Yamato, The film portrays the Japanese as proud young men with the same fears and trepidations of any nation involved in warfare , It is probably the propaganda of the Hollywood type films always showing the Japanese as warmongering warriors with only one thing on their minds that is to destroy the enemy at all costs in the name of the Emperor, This film deals with a lot of issues on different levels and I think with a bigger budget could have become a war classic, In my eyes the battleship represents Japan with its great industrial and military capability In the beginning the crew feeling like they are invulnerable to attack and so exude a great confidence in their vessel However as the Americans get nearer, their superior air power proves to the crew that they are now facing their own mortality and just like Japan itself looking at the jaws if defeat. The film also deals with the issue of Kamikaze and what the reality of these decisions meant for the crew who yet again actually protest rather than blindly following the orders from their superiors,I see in the Yamato apparently the biggest warship ever built a relic of naval strategy .Sure it must have been a terrifying sight when at sea but it had been superseded by the Aircraft Carriers .The ship needed to have air support to properly defend itself against these new vessels.Yet again just like Japan it was falling behind and was a monument of the past and so paid the ultimate price.to the superpower that America with its overwhelming technological superiority had become The film also deals with the human side of things and becomes very emotional ,how do you explain to a mother that her son died an honourable death ,in her eyes her son is dead that is all that matters to her I do not want to spoil the film but if like me you like the War genre type of film then this should definitely be on your list,

I live in Hiroshima and I have a colleague whose lost his father on the Yamato when he was 13 years old. My nephew is staying with me and today we visited Kure, where the Yamato was built, and the Yamato Museum. Actually, my colleague still cannot bring himself to visit the museum or even watch this movie, though it was made sixty years after the sinking.

Actually, the movie opens in the same museum, where there is a 1/10 scale model of the battleship, and loads of information/memorabilia. There is very little English in the explanations and I suspect that foreigners are not really expected to visit the museum, given the contents.

After returning home from visiting the museum we watched the movie. It was just as moving as it was when I first saw it. It has a local feel, which I can appreciate, since I have lived here for nearly 30 years. The Yamato was built in Kure and it would be interesting to see how many local actually people served on the battleship (I have no idea, but records probably exist).

Of course, the clichés are all there, as is the unique way of Japanese acting. I used this movie in one of my classes and had students compare it with Pearl Harbor and Troy. Pearl Harbor did not receive much praise, but students were challenged to compare the human elements in Otokotachi no Yamato and Troy.

I finished watching this film just a few hours ago and decided to take a look what does the IMDb say about the film. Some commentators have claimed that the film has little to offer for non-Japanese viewers. I have to disagree for at least I, a Finn, found the film very close to my heart. Perhaps the fact that both Finns and Japanese have always been forced to fight enemies much larger than our own nations have given us similar courage to fight in spite of all odds. The sailors on Yamato and their calm courage before and during the battle reminds me of our own warriors waiting for another mass attack by Bolsheviks intent on wiping out my nation.

What took me by surprise is the outright arrogance of some reviewers when issuing moral judgments from a very shaky ground. After all, should a representative on Communist China really condemn Japanese atrocities and dictatorship when his own regime killed over 50 million of its own citizens? Or how short a memory do those Americans have who are ready to condemn Japan for activity that pales in comparison with the ruthless genocide of American Indians? Or representatives of those European countries who practiced very brutal colonialism for many centuries.

As for the film itself, the effects are not particularly great. As is quite typical of CGI, attacking enemy aircraft are unrealistically agile in their movements. But, music was excellent, as was acting. And a big bonus for not succumbing to the political correctness and victors' arrogant brainwashing re-educational propaganda that ruins e.g. modern German war films in particular and historiography in general and which is unfortunately present on so many other reviews.

There are two things about this movie that make it more than a little absurd. Of course US movies tell the US perspective, and Japanese movies will tend to tell theirs. But Japan does not even teach what happened in World War II, no one growing up after the war has ever been taught what they did to the subjects under their rule, or that they started hostilities. This is why China and Korea to this day maintain a cold peace with Japan. They have not forgotten.

So this movie once again skips over anything -- Japanese perspective or not -- about the war, and focuses on the only thing Japan has ever focused on since -- their own suffering.

The other thing is that the fight scenes make it look like they are at least making the US pay a heavy price. This is typical Japanese face- saving. If you are going to make a movie about these dead heroes to the state, you have to at least make it look like they died being somewhat competent. In fact, the count for the day was something like 10 US planes downed, and 14 pilots wounded. Considering that 4000 Japanese sailors died, this was an incredibly lopsided fight. So in other words, the battle must have looked very, very different than this movie.

I understand that a Japanese director probably cannot make a movie in which Japanese sailors are dying by the thousands -- and ARE NOT EVEN ABLE to inflict much damage in return. But that isn't US propaganda -- that is what happened. Surely at this point, it's time for someone to tell the young people of Japan something closer to the truth? Yes, Japan paid for its mistake, but it was not an innocent victim.

In 2001 I taught for six weeks in Japan, 2 weeks before, then later 4 weeks after 9/11. My students incredulously asked me in amazement "who would think of using an airplane as a suicide weapon and killing themselves and lots of other people?" They had not even HEARD of kamikazes! I did not have the heart to enlighten them, so I restrained my natural response "Your people invented this!"

Modern pacifist Japan is rooted in ignorance, and this movie contributes nothing to understanding. This is the telling of a war that happened in another dimension, not here. This is a tale from a Japan that still cannot own up to its own history.

Given their desire to put the humiliation of the Showa period behind them and their understandable anti-militarism, I am glad to see the Japanese put out a realistic war movie that gets away from stereotypes. The story could be about the young men of any country in any war. Although the tag lines often read that it is about the Yamato on her last mission, this is really a backdrop for the portrayal of her crew as what they were, people. Multi dimensional, brave, flawed and dedicated. It also shows that the Americans were committed to press the attack until the job was done.

Although there were (and always are in war movies) technical errors, the act of strafing gun crews is an admitted tactic of US Naval fighter pilots of the era. This made it safer for the torpedo and dive bombers. I was glad to see that they showed blood in the battle scenes (often not shown in naval battles), not because I like gore, but it helped bring to life the horror of battle.

Sorry for my English, but I'am from Poland and my English is not so good. What I can say about this film? This story is really powerful and i really love it. I know that from technical side this film is not perfect, but i was crying a littel when i was watching it and because of that i think this film is excellent. This is really good movie. Is very moving, but i think that historical facts are difrent from the story we can see in movie(only a little difrent). My opinion about this film is that it should have get eight points, but i vote 10/10 because too many people who don't know anything about movies vote 1/10 they can't be obiective, or they really hate Japanes movies, or they really stupid.