good back-story, and good acting

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

I just visited the Mikasa (the flag ship of the japanese navy during the russo-japanese war, which is wonderfully preserved at yokosuka) on my last trip to Japan. They show this movie periodically down below in a small theatre. It had great naval battle scenes of the Japanese fleet beating the hell out of the Russians. Good stuff.