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2006
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LETTERS
FROM IWO JIMA
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STARRING:KAZUNARI
NINOMIYA,KEN WATTANABE,TSUYOSHI IHARA,RYO KASE,SHIDO NAKAMURA,HIROSHI
WATANABE,TAKUMI BANDO,YUKI MATSUZAKI,TAKASHI YAMAGUCHI,EIJIRO
OZAKI
BASED
ON THE BOOK "PICTURE LETTERS FROM COMMANDER IN CHIEF"
BY TADAMICHI KURIBAYASHI & TSUYOKO YOSHIDO
STORY
BY PAUL HAGGIS & IRIS YAMASHITA
SCREENPLAY
BY IRIS YAMISHITA
PRODUCED
BY CLINT EASTWOOD,ROBERT LORENZ & STEVEN SPIELBERG
DIRECTED
BY CLINT EASTWOOD
GENRE:WAR/DRAMA/HISTORY
RATED:AUSTRALIA:MA/UK:15/USA:R
RUNNING
TIME:141 MIN
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The
companion piece to Flags
of Our Fathers (also released that same year),
Letters from Iwo Jima portrays the battle of Iwo Jima from
the Japanese perspective. Ken Wattanabe plays newly stationed General
Tadamichi Kuribayashi, a well educated man who had spent time in America
studying their methods. Upon inspection of the island, Kuribayashi
decides to forgo the traditional defensive strategy of digging trenches
along the beach and instead orders his men to create tunnels within
the islands Mount Suribachi, which creates resistance among his senior
offices. Among his men is Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a baker who was
conscripted into the army. Struggling with life as a soldier, Saigo
constantly writes letters to his wife and daughter to whom he made
a promise that he will return back to them. Also within the ranks
is the just transferred Shimizu (Ryo Kase); Olympic Gold Medallist
Baron Nichi (Tsuyoshi Ihara); and Lieutenant Ito (Shido Nakumura).
Void of outside resources and extremely outnumbered, Kuribayashi and
his men prepare for battle knowing full well that they will meet their
demise.
While the majority of American produced war films often demonize the
enemy, Letters from Iwo Jima takes an interesting and fresh
approach to the genre by depicting what it was like for the men within
the Japanese army. Having watched Letters from Iwo Jima and
Flags
of Our Fathers back to back, I was struck by the
obvious differences between both cultures. The themes of loyalty,
tradition, honour and courage are extremely important among these
men, as is the notion of dying with honour. Surrendering is not an
option. One key disturbing scene where a group of soldiers are commanded
to take their own lives rather than yield to the Americans (which
they accomplish by blowing themselves up with their own grenades)
drives home the point that war - regardless of race, colour, country
or creed - is nothing more than the dehumanization of man.
Featuring an all Japanese cast and spoken entirely in the Japanese
language, the movie contains great performances by the credible Ken
Wattanabe and the surprising Hollywood debut by Japanese boy band
singer Kazunari Ninomiya.
The better of the two Imo Jima films, Letters from Iwo Jima
makes up for whatever faults there were in
Flags of Our Fathers.
The films structure and editing is much tighter compared to Flags…,
while the battle scenes, set, costumes, sound and cinematography remain
consistently excellent. Based on the book "Picture Letters from
Commander in Chief" edited by Tsuyoko Yoshido which featured
letters and pictures the real Tadamichi Kuribayashi wrote for his
family, screenwriter Iris Yamishita has written a great script full
of many memorable characters and moments which director Clint Eastwood
does a marvellous job bringing to the big screen. |
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