Rengo kantai (1981)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Shûe Matsubayashi

Writer:

Katsuya Susaki (writer)

Release Date:

28 November 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

A lavish retelling of the true story of the final voyage and ultimate destruction and sinking of the battleship Yamato...

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Susumu Fujita
Hiroshi Hasegawa
Akihiko Hirata
Tôru Ibuki
Takenobu Ikeda
Masao Imanishi
Shigeki Ishida
Nobuo Kaneko
Shigeo Kato
Keiju Kobayashi	...	Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku
Tatsuya Mihashi
Michirô Minami	...	Kuroshima Sennin Sanbô
Hisaya Morishige
Osami Nabe
Ichirô Nakaya
Shôji Nakayama
Ichiro Omura
Eitarô Ozawa
Makoto Satô
Tetsuro Tamba	...	Vice Admiral Takijirō Ånishi
Jun Tazaki
Koji Tsuruta	...	Captain Kōsaku Aruga

Also Known As:

The Grand Fleet
The Great Fleet
The Imperial Navy (USA)

Runtime:

145 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Company:

Toho Eizo Co.

Nakano's war movie

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Having succeeded his late mentor Eiji Tsuburaya, Teruyoshi Nakano went on to create most of Japan's best special effects of the 1970's and early 80's. This would be his largest-budget, most lavish war film, following HILL 203 and THE BATTLE OF OKINAWA. This film re-teams him with director Shuei Matsubayashi, who Nakano had worked for earlier under Tsuburaya's leadership on STORM OVER THE PACIFIC, which this film is a loose sequel to. It also stars many of the same Toho performers, namely Jun Tazaki, Akihiko Hirata, Makoto Sato, and Koji Tsuruta as the Yamato Captain.

Although this film is ostensibly supposed to cover the trials and tribulations of the Battleship Yamato throughout the war, it really hits all the major highlights beginning with Pearl Harbor and ending with the Yamato's suicide mission in April of 1945. Unfortunately the film's first half relies heavily on stock footage taken from STORM OVER THE PACIFIC. It isn't until the section of the film depicting the Battle of Leyte Gulf that we really get some new quality battle scenes.

Two standout effects really elevate this film - the drawn-out destruction of the Zuikaku Aircraft Carrier mid-film (complete with an excellent scene where Tetsuro Tamba unsuccessfully sues to go down with his ship) and then at the end with the climactic destruction of the pride of Japan's navy, the super-battleship Yamato. All throughout however are good scenes such as Admiral Yamamoto's encounter with American fighter planes... and Makoto Sato is gravely wounded in a scene quite similar to what happened to his character in STORM OVER THE PACIFIC.

Overall, a fine, comprehensive, fast-moving, and well-acted war drama which is just as educational as it is entertaining. True to the spirit of Japanese war movies of the 60's and overall quite impressive from a pyrotechnic standpoint. Let's hope for a subtitled domestic release someday.