Yamato – The Last Battle (2005)

Yamato – The Last Battle: Directed by Jun’ya Satô. With Takashi Sorimachi, Shidô Nakamura, Kyôka Suzuki, Ken’ichi Matsuyama. 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.

“I am almost through a great book on the history of Japan in WWII. The naval battles are fascinating to read about, and so when I saw this movie in the local Asian mall I picked it up.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eYamato (the old name for Japan) has good and bad points. Starting with the good – I find the story fascinating, how the remainder of the Second fleet made a run for Okinawa on a mission that everyone knew was suicide due to lack of air support (Japanu0026#39;s air force had been finally crushed at Saipan). Some of the acting was great; I thought Uchida really stood out. As far as I can tell the film was very historically accurate. Some of the insights into u0026quot;bushidou0026quot; were interesting, especially the admiralu0026#39;s explanation of bushido vs. English chivalry. And some of the effects were pretty good too.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOn the bad side… the film had kind of a made-for-TV movie feel. As I said, some of the effects were good, others were far from great. The director shied away from showing the large sections of the ship, or the whole ship, maybe because of lack of budget – but I found myself really wanting to see those shots of this 65,000 ton superbattleship. It was obvious the whole film was made in a studio. They really should have invested in substantial steel tubes for the anti-aircraft guns, the fact that they jittered around like toys bothered me. Also in the silent dialog scenes, there should have been an omnipresent rumble of the shipu0026#39;s engines to add to the illusion that we are on the largest battleship in the world.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt wasnu0026#39;t great, but I enjoyed it anyway, and anyone else who is interested in Japanese naval history I think will also enjoy it despite its shortcomings.”