For Those We Love (2007)

Young Japanese pilots are trained to sink Allied warships by flying into them.

Director:

Taku Shinjô

Writer:

Shintarô Ishihara

Stars:

Ryôhei Abe, Tôru Emori, Katsutaka Furuhata

Cast

Credited cast:
Ryôhei Abe
Tôru Emori
Katsutaka Furuhata
Cleve Gray	...	Bloodied Sailor
Ichirô Hashimoto
Masatô Ibu	...	Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi
Renji Ishibashi
Hiroshi Katsuno
Keisaku Kimura
Noboru Kimura
Keiko Kishi	...	Torihama
Yôsuke Kubozuka
Yasuyuki Maekawa
Mikage
Yuji Miyashita

Storyline

With the war turning against the Japanese, the military high command consider the use of suicide pilots to attack allied shopping in the Pacific. In the south of Japan, young pilots arrive to begin preparations for their first and only missions. Nearby to the kamikaze training base, a tavern owner provides comfort and respite despite objections from the military. The movie highlights the the dichotomy of dying for Japan, without having experienced Japanese life in full.

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Plot Keywords:

flying | 

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Did You Know?

Trivia

At several points in the movie, people are seen carrying boxes in white cotton slings. These are the ashes of deceased servicemen. However often these boxes were empty and purely symbolic owing to the inability to recover those who fell, so far from their homes.

User Reviews

a unique perspective

"For those we love" is quite a different take on a war drama. Instead of showing the suffering people went through caused by the war, it shows the last days of the people who went willingly into their own death to die for something they believed in. This movie can be pretty depressing depending on how to look at it. I saw these characters presented in the movie as products of their time and being indoctrinated to give up their young lives to a cause utterly meaningless. But then again, so it is for every soldier in a war. The difference here is that we see everything from the perspective of the Kamikaze pilots, which after the war ended, became a pretty bad image, mainly because japan lost and like they say: "history is written by the winners". On top of seeing the war from another perspective I found this movie to be very sad at some parts. It needs a bit build up and may be a bit repetitive, but I enjoyed it and I can only recommend it.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

12 May 2007 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Kamikaze

Filming Locations:

Daigomachi, Ibaraki, Japan

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$7,769,311

Company Credits

Production Co:

Nippon Television Network (NTV), Toei Company, Toei Video Company

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1