Letters From Iwo Jima

[KLAXXON]

From Academy Award winning director Clint Eastwood comes the untold story of the Japanese soldiers who defended the homeland against invading American forces during World War II. With a little defense other than sheer will and the volcanic rock of Iwo Jima itself, the unprecedented tactics of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe, The Last Samurai) and his men transform what was predicted to be a swift defeat into nearly 40 days of heroic and resourceful combat. Their sacrifices, struggles, courage and compassion live on in the taut, gripping film Rolling Stone calls "unique and unforgetable."

Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima is just the opposite: it puts you right at the centre of events, so you really feel you know and care about the fate of his characters. Remarkably, he has managed to achieve an intimacy with his Japanese actors and characters that he never got with his American cast in Flags of Our Fathers. One sure sign of that is that you quickly forget you are reading subtitles. The film begins in 2005 with the discovery, in one of the tunnels built during the war by the Japanese on the island of Iwo Jima, of a bundle of letters written by soldiers just before the American invasion. In these letters to wives, mothers and sons are the lives, last words and longings of men about to die. Much of the film’s impact comes from nothing more than a change of perspective. It takes all the familiar features of the second-world-war scenario — the battles, the questions of courage, the drama of leadership, the complaints and fears of ordinary soldiers — and gives them an entirely new twist by showing them from the “enemy” point of view. Eastwood’s point is that they weren’t so different from us after all.

He has managed to humanise these enemy soldiers in a way no Hollywood war film has done before. It is made possible by the superb performances of the likes of Ken Watanabe, as General Kuriba-yashi, and Kazunari Ninomiya, as the dissident baker Saigo. Indeed, veterans of that war might complain that Eastwood has shown a slight bias in favour of the Japanese. It’s the Americans who are shown to be the savage ones, as when two Japanese soldiers who have surrendered are suddenly shot for no reason. And whereas in Flags of Our Fathers Eastwood was keen to deconstruct the idea of heroism, here you suspect he has a sneaking respect for the heroism of the Japanese, who, though they were outnumbered and knew they would die, fought bravely to the end.

Still, you can’t help but feel that Eastwood’s bravery in making the two films is somewhat suspect. He can challenge the ethics of war and the demonisation of an enemy decades after the event, but during the conflicts of the past 30 years he’s never taken such a stand.

Impressively directed, engaging and frequently moving drama, although it's a shame that there isn't a little more crossover with its companion piece.


Clint Eastwood's Oscar-nominated companion piece to Flags of our Fathers tells the story of Iwo Jima from the point of view of the Japanese, beginning with a team of archaeologists on present day Iwo Jima unearthing hundreds of letters, written by the Japanese soldiers but never sent home. The letters give voice to two men in particular: troop commander General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe), whose travels have given him insight into the American forces, and lowly serviceman Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), who dreams of making it home to see his newborn daughter.

Kuribayashi knows that defeat is inevitable but he orders his men to dig a network of underground tunnels so that they can hold out for as long as possible. Meanwhile, Saigo clashes with a bullying officer (Shido Nakamura) and decides that surrender might be preferable to suicide.


The performances are excellent and the device of the soldiers' letters allows Eastwood to dispense with the clumsy interview structure that marred Flags of our Fathers. It's also refreshingly free of the first film's sentimentality and gung-ho Jingoism, presenting a balanced view of the Japanese.

Tom Stern's starkly muted cinematography is excellent, starving you for colour and giving the inevitable dashes of red that create much more impact. Eastwood also includes several nice directorial touches, the most telling of which occurs when the iconic flag from the first film appears as a tiny, insignificant speck in the distance.


The only disappointing thing is that Letters From Iwo Jima misses the opportunity for crossover between the two films (none of the American actors repeat their roles), although one scene is clearly meant to evoke an unseen moment from Flags.


Eastwood's bold experiment proves a great success: this is an engaging, superbly acted drama about the high personal cost of warfare. Recommended.


Ken Watanabe ... General Kuribayashi
Kazunari Ninomiya ... Saigo
Tsuyoshi Ihara ... Baron Nishi
Ryo Kase ... Shimizu
Shido Nakamura ... Lieutenant Ito (as Shidou Nakamura)
Hiroshi Watanabe ... Lieutenant Fujita
Takumi Bando ... Captain Tanida
Yuki Matsuzaki ... Nozaki
Takashi Yamaguchi ... Kashiwara
Eijiro Ozaki ... Lieutenant Okubo
Nae ... Hanako
Nobumasa Sakagami ... Admiral Ohsugi
Luke Eberl ... Sam (as Lucas Elliot)
Sonny Saito ... Medic Endo (as Sonny Seiichi Saito)
Steve Santa Sekiyoshi ... Kanda


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