The Battleship Yamato.

[jimslip]

One of the best war films I've ever seen. The story of the largest battleship at the time in it's final days of WW2. Told from the Japanese point of view, where you find the crew are not crazed nutters willing to throw away their lives for the Emperor, but the same as all 16 year olds when looking forward glory in war and finding only death and hopelessness. Whilst their commanders skulk in reinforced bunkers.

The main battle scene was stupendous just on a Ipad, God knows what it would be like on a large screen TV with 5:1 sussound turned up!

[frankthring]

Judging only by the trailer it looks splendidly big-budget, very "Hollywood"
and "revisionist".
I wonder, Jim, if there is a scene in the movie in which Amercan naval
personnel are brought on board ? Ah, perhaps not. From 1943 it was an
imperial order that all foreign service personnel captured at sea were to
be executed. That wouldn`t look so good in a Japanese naval film.
It would be heartening Jim if this movie set a new trend - that Japan owned up to the 6 million prisoners it butchered between 1937-45. Maybe
a movie in which a hand-wringing and tragic Jap officer shows how tough
it was for them kill and starve 100,000 allied servicemen, mainly British, to
death on the Burma-Siam railway.....or the way US prisoners were injected
with typhus and other disgusting germ warfare experiments, of the Bataan
death march, or the more than 100 prisoners of the Indian Army on New
Guinea eaten alive by the Japs .
A film like "Yamamoto" serves to humanise the wartime Japs. Perhaps thats a good thing. They were human, right ? Yet I think it also saves
modern Japan from facing up to its terrible crimes and human rights record
in WWII. The Japs of that war were, as units (NOT individuals) absolutely
nothing like us. And modern Japan has not the guts to admit it.

[andy at handiwork]

Lets not forget the sacking of Nanking, because many Japanese have. The brutal murder and mass rape of as many as 250000 civilians is still all but denied or excused by many, even in the government. It remains a stumbling block in Sino-Japanese relations to this day.

[RoddersUK]

Frank, Andy, I'm glad to see that there are some who share my views on the Japs and what they did in WW2.
In this modern day and age a lot of people tend to overlook the atrocities carried out by the sons of Bushido. I remember as a young soldier the population of Singapore had little good to say about them, and, having family members and a personal friend who suffered under them I empathise with them. Some people may be able to forgive the Nips, but I would urge everyone that they never forget what they did.

[jimslip]

Another gem I found on Itunes for 99P rental/ download. A Chinese blockbuster that puts Hollywood to shame. The harrowing story of a brother and sister separated after a devasting earthquake devastates their town. The effects and destruction are unbelieveably realistic and the film has a REAL cast of thousands, I mean they are not copied and pasted!

PS There's not even a hint of Kung Fu-lery anywhere in this film!!wink!

[jimslip]

Trailer:

[andy at handiwork]

I wonder if the film includes such details as the refusal to allow foreign aid teams in to help the relief effort, that the collapse of badly constructed buildings built under the watch of the Great Helmsman added to the death rate or the political battle that was going on in the background at the time between Deng Xiaoping and the Gang of Four led by Moa's widow Jiang Qing. Both sides used the disaster to attack the other, with Jing Qing saying

'There were merely several hundred thousand deaths. So what? Denouncing Deng Xiaoping concerns 800 million people.'

and
'Solemnly condemn the capitalist-roaders who use the fear of an earthquake to sabotage the denunciation of Deng.'

I bet the film doesn't cover theser aspects. The FXs look quite good though.

[jimslip]

No, I don't think it did include all this stuff, because you see, it was a dramatisation of the break up of a family after a disaster. Not a political documentary.

Sometimes it's nice to be impressed by a film and simply enjoy it for what it is.

After all how many re-writes of history have we had to endure from Hollywood over the last 30 years?

At least let me enjoy ONE brilliant Chinese film for no other reason than it was brilliant. Is this so wrong? Or must every creative contribution, whether it be film, music or art, be picked through and gauged to see, just how, "Right on" it is, before you can enjoy it?

[andy at handiwork]

Far be it from me to spoil your enjoyment Jim, and it had nothing to do with 'Right on' whatever that means in this instance. I simply pointed out that there are a number of issues that the Chinese authorities would be very unlikely to allow even though those very issues might have put the story in better context and for me would make the film more interesting. Similarly, they are denying the Chinese audience the opportunity to learn how the disaster was probably somewhat worse than it need have been because of the government's failings before and after the quake. You are quite entitled to watch a film purely for its own sake, I just like a little bit of context now and again, and not just revisionism.