Yamato Review
For many the overwhelming success of big budget Japanese blockbuster Yamato is a key sign of a change in Japan's mood, a new willingness to look at the events of World War II in a positive light and a resurgence of respect for the bushido spirit. And while there is certainly a good case to be made there I believe that Yamato has somethign slightly more in mind. Though set entirely in the war and taking audiences through the final days of the greatest war ship ever constructed Yamato is not about the war itself in any meaningful sense. Yamato completely ignores the politics and context of World War II because it is simply not interested in them, rather this is a film consumed with the people who fought the war, the common people who - for whatever reasons - knowingly sacrificed themselves in the name of their country. It is a film that honors the country's dead and the nobility of the Japanese spirit while also, paradoxically, questioning the wisdom of that same spirit which compelled so many to their deaths long after the war's final outcome was apparent. Much like Titanic, Yamato is film making as an event, a tragic tear jerker played out on a simply enormous scale.
Wait a second! Did I seriously just compare this to Titanic? Absolutely, and it is a comparison that holds on a surprising number of levels. Not only are both films epic tales of very large boats but the final conclusions of both are known to the entire audience before they ever set foot in the theater, Yamato uses an identical survivor flashback device as Cameron's film to frame its story, and both are shamelessly one sided when it comes to manipulating the emotions of their audiences. Think DiCaprio played the doomed saint in Titanic? Well, Yamato's got twenty five hundred of 'em on board.
The story begins on the eve of the sixtieth anniversary of the sinking of the Yamato, Japan's greatest war vessel. A woman who we later learn is the adopted daughter of a former officer of the vessel has come to the closest harbor looking for a captain willing to take her to the site of the wreck and after much rejection she eventually finds herself a willing guide in elderly Kamio. Over the course of the lengthy trip to the wreck we learn that Kamio served on the ship himself under the watchful eye of Uchida, the woman's father. From here on we have Kamio's story told in flashback, from his underage enlistment while Japan's fortunes in the war were already in obvious decline - an attempt to live up the example of his elder brother - through to his first meetings with Petty Officer Uchida and on to the great vessel's final mission, a mission all involved knew full well would end with their deaths and which all chose to undertake regardless.
There is no exagerration at all in saying that Yamato is film making on an epic scale. A one hundred ninety meter long replica of the original vessel - roughly three quarters the actual size - was built for the film which also had extensive support from Japanese naval forces. The battle sequences are stunning and the cast sprawls. While the younger cast are content to play their roles with straight ahead simplicity - all are there for noble reasons and none waver from their chosen path - the older cast give the film the depth it requires to really sink home. Key are the performances of the mid level officers, particularly Takashi Sorimachi's philisophically minded head cook and the always intense, wild eyed and reliable Shidou Nakamura as Uchida. Both of these parts are played with noble spirits as well but both are also laced with the tragic air of men who fully understand where their end lies and what they are asking of the young cadets in their command but who simply can see no other possible road.
That Yamato was a massive success in Japan is no surprise at all. It is a well constructed piece of work that delivers precisely what it promises - a grand spectacle that honors the dead and praises the Japanese spirit and finds a type of honor in the massive military defeat that was simply unthinkable at the time. How it will play outside of Japan seems a little more questionable, however. The generation of Japanese lost to World War II would have been in their seventies and eighties now and so the loss is still felt in ways that makes audiences there happy to go along with this idealized take of military life and sacrifice. Who, after all, would want to question the nobility of their dead grandparents? The film is so relentlessly one sided in its presentation of its characters and treatment of military history that much of what would appeal to Japanese audiences, however, will no doubt rankle American ones as well as other Pacific Rim nations affected by these events. Though it generally tries to steer clear of wartime politics by focusing exclusively on the people rather than the events there is no way to divorce yourself entirely from political positions in a film like this and the ones Yamato takes will no doubt be considerably less popular with those who had family on the opposing side of the line.
The recent Hong Kong DVD release is a solid, low cost option for those looking to see the film. The transfer is more than servicable and captures the film in its correct aspect ratio. A DTS soundtrack is included to annoy the neighbors with during the battle scenes and the English subtitles are clearly translated and capture the distinct quirks of each of the characters.
