http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Juic9HiyAZE&feature=related
This seems to vibe with my Japanese aircraft obsession and I found this wandering around in Youtube. It’s a movie about Kamikaze pilots made by the Japanese. It appears to have been released back in 2007-08. The trailer looks good and I really enjoyed “Letters from Iwo Jima”. I wonder if it’s available anywhere? Anyone know anything about it?
According to a website I found for the movie, it was realeased in 2007 in Japan, then in the Czech republic and one other country that I can’t remember at the moment. Did not appear to have been released in the USA.
Do you understand Japanese? I just e-mailed a friend in Japan to see if she could get it on DVD for me. Looks like it would be an interesting movie - supposed to be a story about the kamikaze pilots told by a lady who ran a small restaurant where many of the pilots ate.
No, I don’t understand Japanese, but would asume that there is English subtitles.
The CGI looks pretty decent and gives you some idea of the horror that they must have endured on their one-way mission.
I also wanted to see that Japanese-made movie about the death of the BB Yamato. Haven’t seen that around either.
I recall an interview with a Japanese pilot who was assigned to a fighter unit that escorted the Kamikazes that were from his unit… He said that when the order came down from the Jap High Command to ask for volunteers, his C.O. formed up the unit 's pilots and ordered those who wished to volunteer for the Kamikaze to write their names on a slip of paper and pass it forward. He then ordered those who didn’t want to volunteer to write their names on a slip of paper and pass them forward…
Contrary to popular belief, not every Kamikaze pilot was killed… Kamikazes were not ordered to fly a one-way mission… They were to attack only if they felt they had a reasonable chance of success and to return to base if it was deemed by the escort commander too difficult to penetrate the US Navy fighter and destroyer screens, or they were not able to locate the part of the fleet they were to attack…
Kamikaze pilot interview 7 minutes into video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RroX3Tc7pgs&feature=related
along with Japanese wartime film of Kamikaze.
Interview continues into next segment 5/15 and 6/15 Victory in the Pacific which also contains film of Kamikaze diving into ships and interviews of US sailors who were on the targeted ships.
Tigerman, I picked up this movie several weekends ago at Mosquito Con. The vendor had a 3 or 4 minute clip playing on a continuous loop of the final action scene you’ve provided in the link. Let me tell you, based on that scene I was hooked and bought the movie. I grossly overpaid for it too but it was something I couldn’t resist, even for 30 dollars! However, when I watched it that night I was very disappointed. All the action occurs in that one 3-4 minute scene at the end. The story shows promise but is missing something. In my opinion, not much enough time was spent building characters and often times, I couldn’t tell the characters apart.
It doesn’t carry the emotional weight that Letters From Iwo Jima does and I think that was the most disappointing part of a movie such as this. However, I don’t understand Japanese so I read the subtitles. That being said, perhaps something was lost in translation. Also, I may have hyped it up in my own mind based on the scene that I saw which was so visually stunning! So, like LaVar Burton used to say, don’t take my word for it.
Lastly, there isn’t much I can say for it historically since I haven’t studied Kamikazes in great detail. But as Hans von Hammer says, not all of them die and that is illustrated well in this movie. So, in short, really awesome action finale but lacking in story line and emotional punch. Don’t spend $30 like me on it.
Hans, I remember watching that same interview. The pilot’s name was Kuniyoshi Tanaka.
Thanks for the review. That is disappointing. I think there could have been more story here. The last 6 minutes were quite powerful IMO. Nobody really has any clue what went through their minds before they struck a ship or like the film, were blown out of the air.
Kamikazes has always fascinated me. Probably due to the romanticism of their dying willingly for their country, but probably as much as they’re doing something that our culture couldn’t fathom.
When I first got into military history it was Torar Tora Tora and the attack on Pearl. I was fascinated by the ships as much as the planes. So my first reasearch was into the pacific campaign. Okinawa and the Kamikaze was always surreal to me.
On a history note, the attack in the film consisted of Ki-43 Oscars. While plausible, I’m not aware of them being used on mass in Kamikaze attacks. One plane with a few 250 pd. bombs wouldn’t do whole lot of damage either.
Thanks Oddmanrush for the short review and Tigerman for bringing this up. I’d like to see it but yeah, not likely to pay thirty bucks for it.