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
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