Overview

In 1943, as Japan's WWII effort falters, a vice-admiral proposes training squadrons of "volunteer" flyers to crash their armed planes into Allied warships. Yarn follows the lives of kamikaze pilots, as remembered by an aging Kyushu restaurateur who cherishes their memory. Honoring the dead and multiple military anthems may stir the soul of some Japanese, but elsewhere auds will make a one-way trip for exits. Battle scenes are well-executed and script delivers some memorable scenes, but overall competent helming and thesping are powerless over writer-cum-Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishiara's repetitive storytelling. A post-war postscript adds considerable length to an already over-extended narrative. Tech credits are good quality.

Top Cast

Satoshi Tokushige

Kapitän Nakanishi

Yosuke Kubozuka

Leutnant Bando

Michitaka Tsutsui

Leutnant Tabata

Keiko Kishi

Tome Torihama

Mikako Tabe

Reiko Torihama

Yasuyuki Maekawa

Kaneyama

Tomoya Nakamura

Soichi Kawai

Dai Watanabe

Staff Sergeant Kato

N

Noboru Kimura

Second lieutenant Abe

R

Ren Hulk

Sergeant first class Matsumoto

Y

Yuji Miyashita

Staff sergeant Ishikura

S

Shinichi TANAKA

Araki