Otoko-tachi no Yamato (2005)

[Johann]

YAMATO


This "60th Anniversary of the Yamato's sinking" film is very beautiful and very compelling to me. I loved watching every minute. I was told about this film (and another one that I've been recommended to check out: Rengo Kentai), which dramatizes the story of the biggest battleship ever built (by the Imperial Jap Navy): the Yamato.

"Yamato" is the Ancient Japanese poetic word for "Japan", so that name is not taken lightly by Japanese people. Indeed, today the legend of the Yamato is massive in Japan, with a gorgeous museum in Kure dedicated to the Supership, and young Japanese idolize it with a space cartoon that elevates the Yamato to a ship amongst the stars. It was an illegal battleship, and Japan broke a treaty with it's construction. The Japanese didn't play fair in that war...
It was just about as long as the Titanic and no battleship has ever matched her in size. From any country. (of course aircraft carriers are bigger, but that's another matter).

The ship was attacked by 600 aircraft during a final suicide mission against the American fleet battling to capture Okinawa and was sunk on April 7, 1945, losing almost all of her 2700 crew members. (2,498 men were lost and the Captain lashed himself to the bridge in his final moments, shouting "I am one with the Yamato")
The battle scenes in this film have to be seen to be believed.
They are the whole reason you should watch the film.

Although, my navy history friend says he doesn't understand why the filmmakers wouldn't present the attack exactly as it happened, with an hour and a half in between waves of aircraft- subtitles are there for every other major event in the film, why not one saying "an hour and a half later another wave of aircraft advanced"? which would be a good time to show quick edits of crew members doing repairs, fighting more fires and other tasks that the history books say they did after the attacks. He also doesn't understand why the ship was being hit with way more bombs than it actually was because the authenticity of everything else was immaculate. The uniforms, the training, the scale sets of the ship (which are stunningly blended with realistic CGI), the DISCIPLINE of the Japanese Navy! Wow.
Those guys weren't sissies by any stretch.
You fuck up on a Yamato class ship and you seriously suffer, Paco!
I won't tell you the scenes, you'll just have to watch it.
Those Japs didn't fuck around.

There are various criticisms of the movie online that I've read and I don't know what to make of them.
I feel Yamato is an important, classic film that properly honors the to-be-respected Japanese people when it comes to engineering and dedication to fighting a hell of a fight.
Some shots of that ship are really something in this movie man..
They convey the size of it quite well, with nice emphasis on it's massive guns.

For military types and war buffs this film is a can't-miss feature.
It was not released outside of Japan for obvious reasons.
The Japanese don't want to put too much of a glory spotlight on this particular part of it's WWII history- these battleships were supposed to be secret weapons, and all information about them is available but not widely trumpeted. Nobody wants to see Japanese military chest beating...so it's an under-the-radar Epic war film.
Directed by Junya Sato
Excellent Cinematography by Yoshitaka Sakamoto