Kampfgeschwader Zero (1984)

Kampfgeschwader Zero: Directed by Toshio Masuda. With Daijiro Tsutsumi, Jun Hashizume, Yu Hayami, Yûzô Kayama. Two young men are recruited into the Japanese air force just before outbreak of WW2 by the testpilot of Japans new super fighter – the Zero. The movie is told in reverse from the point of one of the young men who dossn’t qualify for the pilot traning and instead joins the ground crew. It chronicles the entire history of the famous fighter from the first prototype test flights all through the war.

“I first came across this movie several years ago, with the English title of u0026quot;Zero Fighter.u0026quot; My opinion is, all things considered, it is not a bad war movie. It is one of the first Iu0026#39;ve seen that tells the tale of WWII from the Japanese side. Of course the special effects were decidedly Japanese, spectacular and pretty obviously faked. Still, they worked to convey the story. I wish I could find this on video tape, but Iu0026#39;m not going to hold my breath.”