letters from iwo jima

i encourage everyone to see this movie (released tomorrow, some wal-marts at midnight). although the spoken language is japanese, it was directed by a quintessentially american director. therefore, the movie's sensibilities make it highly accessible to most american viewers. it is something that can be appreciated by people who like non-english-language movies already, by people who want to dip their toes in new fare, and by people who like war dramas.

ken watanabe has been the go-to guy for big-budget american movies with japanese characters ("the last samurai", "memoirs of a geisha", "batman begins"). he's not quite the new toshiro mifune, but if he keeps this up, then he'll etch his name in intl cinema history, too.

pay close attention to the kempeitei (political officer) character. his backstory is heartbreaking, as is saigo the baker's.

as a chinese american, i walked into the movie thinking that i would hate eastwood for "sanitizing" or "valorizing" the japanese during wwii. however, my good friend john puccio is right--the leaders may have been evil and wrong, but most soldiers on both sides of the war were simple folk who were the unfortunate victims of pernicious zealotry.

[Post edited by posters5 on May 31, 2007]

Eddie --

I throughly agree with you and John that this movie is a must see. One of the best of 2006. This one is better than Flags of our Fathers. I watched this on BD on Friday was overall very impressed with Mr Ken. He is an awesome actor.

Eddie,

I'm really looking forward to this one. I greatly enjoyed Eastwood's take in "Flags of Our Fathers" on the tolls of war that echo long after the last shot has been silenced. I also look forward to this examination of the opponent those very men fought for their very survival.

In times of war, just like now, we see the demonization of cultures because they are considered our enemy. My dad has many old Life magazines, and the propogandist racial steryotyping of both Japanese and Chinese is sickening. It's a shame when a culture bases their views of an entire group of people on the despicable acts of the few. I'm sure that we will look back years from now and have our stomachs again turned by the one-sided, misguided stereotypes we currently place on the Arabic community. You'd think we'd have learned from our mistakes by now, but we buy into the propaganda and throw a blanket of hate without cause.

I hope the world will be able to separate us, the citizens of this country, from what this current administration has done, and continues to do, to tarnish the reputation of this fine nation.

sean (...i'm gonna need a bigger soap box...)

sean,

it's like john wrote...we were told to hate the japanese and the germans, but then all of a sudden, we were told to love them. meanwhile, our soviet friends became our soviet enemies within a matter of hours after v-e day. the guys in power yank everyone around at their convenience, and the common folk get whiplash.

eddie

p.s. beware the slippery soap. :-D

[Post edited by posters5 on May 22, 2007]

Eddie,

That must be why I wake up with a crick in my neck when I get up every day!

sean (...i don't just need a select comfort bed after all!...)

w w w . dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews31/letters_from_iwo_jima.htm

[Post edited by posters5 on May 22, 2007]

Amazing film....Flags of our Fathers doesn't even come close to this one.

The idea to show both sides was great and even though a lot of people tried to call Eastwood crazy for attempting it he pulled it off great, as did everyone involved. Although 'Flags' did have somewhat of an interesting story in relation to the battle going on at home and the effects of conflict on soldiers, we have heard it in one way or another many times before which made 'Letters' the one I was most interested in seeing when both films were announced. As a film it keeps the focus centered (for the most part) on the events occuring on the island, which helps keep our attention(unlike 'Flags' which, like John mentioned in his review, tended to jump around a bit much). The performances in both films are wonderful though and it is clear that everyone involved in the project wanted to be there and give it their all. Now that they are both on DVD I look forward to viewing them as parts of a whole even though they are seperate films with there own merits.

[Post edited by e_h_r_o_n on May 23, 2007]

i was wondering if more people have read john's review and decided to give this movie a chance...

I bought Letters and Flags. Was hoping they would do a boxed set of the two with all the bonus extras like the SD, but I guess that will come later.

Havent watched either yet as I started with the Matrix trillogy. I am looking forward to them though.

Cheers,

Richard