Yamato (2005)

The movie follows 3 Japanese friends from embarking on Yamato, the world's largest battleship, until it's sunk 3 1/2 years later on April 7, 1945 on it's way to Okinawa to stop American advance at the end of WWII.

Director:

Jun'ya Satô

Writers:

Jun Henmi (novel), Jun'ya Satô (screenplay)

Stars:

Takashi Sorimachi, Shidô Nakamura, Yû Aoi

6 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Takashi Sorimachi	...	Shohachi Moriwaki
Shidô Nakamura	...	Mamoru Uchida
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yû Aoi	...	Taeko
Takahiro Fujimoto
Jun'ichi Haruta	...	Hisao Koike
Ryô Hashizume	...	Yoshiharu Kojima
Ryûzô Hayashi	...	Ryunosuke Kusaka
Hiroyuki Hirayama	...	Tamaki
Hirotarô Honda	...	Tetsuzo Furumura
Hisashi Igawa	...	The Chairman
Sôsuke Ikematsu	...	Atsushi (as Sosuke Ikematsu)
Chavetaro Ishizaki	...	Ishizaki Masataka
Kenji Kaneko	...	Machimura
Hiroshi Katsuno	...	Nobue Morishita
Kôsei

Storyline

On April, 6th 2005, in Makurazi, Kagoshima, Makiko Uchida 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 of the fishing vessel Asukamaru and discloses that she is the stepdaughter of Officer Nagoya Uchida and Kamio immediately accepts to take her in the risky journey. While traveling with Makiko and the fifteen year-old Atsuchi, 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 Showa era.

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Plot Keywords:

japan | japanese history | yamato | battleship | naval hospital | 

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Genres:

Drama | History | War

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

17 December 2005 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Yamato

Filming Locations:

Kure, Hiroshima, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Asahi Shimbun, Chugoku Shimbun, Hiroshima Home TV

Technical Specs

Runtime:

145 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Part of the foredeck and port side of the Yamato were reconstructed to full scale for the exterior scenes. As the Japan Building Standards Act interfered with re-creating the ship's entire superstructure, images of a one-tenth scale model of the Yamato at its namesake museum in Kure were used in post-production.

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Goofs

Most of the 25mm AA guns do not recoil when fired. Neither do the guns of the 5" batteries

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Quotes

Mamoru Uchida: [Firing an AA gun defiantly as the ship sinks] I'm not done yet! My last throw!

User Reviews

True thing... that hurts

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).