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Title: Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Ken Watanabe | ... | General Kuribayashi | |
| Kazunari Ninomiya | ... | Saigo | |
| Tsuyoshi Ihara | ... | Baron Nishi | |
| Ryô Kase | ... | Shimizu | |
| Shidô Nakamura | ... | Lieutenant Ito (as Shidou Nakamura) | |
| Hiroshi Watanabe | ... | Lieutenant Fujita | |
 |
Takumi Bando | ... | Captain Tanida |
| Yuki Matsuzaki | ... | Nozaki | |
| Takashi Yamaguchi | ... | Kashiwara | |
| Eijiro Ozaki | ... | Lieutenant Okubo | |
| Nae | ... | Hanako | |
|
|
Nobumasa Sakagami | ... | Admiral Ohsugi |
| Lucas Elliot Eberl | ... | Sam (as Lucas Elliot) | |
| Sonny Saito | ... | Medic Endo (as Sonny Seiichi Saito) | |
|
|
Steve Santa Sekiyoshi | ... | Kanda |
The island of Iwo Jima stands between the American military force and the home islands of Japan. Therefore the Imperial Japanese Army is desperate to prevent it from falling into American hands and providing a launching point for an invasion of Japan. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) is given command of the forces on the island and sets out to prepare for the imminent attack. General Kuribayashi, however, does not favor the rigid traditional approach recommended by his subordinates, and resentment and resistance fester amongst his staff. In the lower echelons, a young soldier, Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a poor baker in civilian life, strives with his friends to survive the harsh regime of the Japanese Army itself, all the while knowing that a fierce battle looms. When the American invasion begins, Kuribayashi and Saigo find strength, honor, courage, and horrors beyond imagination. Written by Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
Despite how embarrassing and condemning it may be, I am going to honestly explain how I felt while watching this movie.
About a half hour through, I realized, with some horror, I really didn't care about any of the characters. It wasn't that they were portrayed poorly, they were plenty convincing and even interesting. I was certainly curious about what was going to happen to them, but curiosity is where it stopped. I shared no emotional or sympathetic bond with any character, I did not need for any of them to survive, I did not suffer when any fell. I'm not entirely sure why this is. Is it because of cultural differences? Is it because they were speaking another language? I think it must be that somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I was watching the enemy. These people were in situations, at least sometimes, I could sympathize with and displayed extremely admirable qualities, I just couldn't invest emotionally in anyone. It wasn't until an injured American made his way onto the screen that I could feel my heartstrings being pulled. Granted, that may be because it was the most amazing scene in the movie, but I think it's really because they started speaking in English and talked about places I had heard of before.
The film is truly remarkable what it put me through. I've never watched a war movie except through a Western set of heroes and they are generally the victors. Eastwood made me examine myself more thoroughly by being placed somewhere so foreign. I'm not saying my default attachment watching the Japanese is necessarily wrong or immoral (who knew I was so patriotic?), but it was certainly there with me in the theater. I thought myself more enlightened, more a member of the global village. This movie revealed that perhaps I am not. A lesser film, I don't think would have allowed for so much introspection.
It is an American that commits the most heinous acts in the movie. The most amoral thing I might have ever seen done on film, and I'm shocked how quickly I thought, "Well war does terrible things to people." If the Japanese had done something comparable (as they do in the companion piece FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, I probably would have thought instead, "What a messed up culture."
Why none of these fine actors were nominated for an Academy Award, I don't know.