Otoko-tachi no 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)
Masataka Ishizaki	...	Ishizaki Masataka (as Chavetaro Ishizaki)
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.

---

Plot Keywords:

japan | japanese history | 1940s | imperial japan | japanese navy | 

---

Genres:

Drama | History | War

---

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.

---

Goofs

P-47 Thunderbolts can clearly be seen on more than one occasion. At 1:41:33, the distinctive bubble canopy can clearly be seen on one strafing Yamato. While SB2C Helldivers are also seen, they are different than the P-47 in many ways, from the wing shape, the entire tail, and a long greenhouse canopy.

---

Quotes

Mamoru Uchida: [Kamio tries to get back to his gun as Yamato starts to sink, Uchida stops him] Kamio! Orders are to abandon ship. Get away.
Katsumi Kamio (15 years old): But they're still attacking!
Mamoru Uchida: Forget it. The battle's over.

User Reviews

with world attention, but not for foreign audience

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".

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

17 December 2005 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Otoko-tachi no Yamato

Filming Locations:

Kure, Hiroshima, Japan

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$39,287,114

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