Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The acting in this movie is really good.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This is a great movie. It refutes the shallow, stereotypical portrayal of Japanese in World War Two American movies. When considering atrocities such as The Bataan Death March, it is easy to say, "Good for them, they deserved what they got." Yet, the movie is about Japanese valor. The question is: is it contrived or was it real? Here, the roles are reversed. The Japanese are heroes and the Americans the faceless enemy. The Yamato went down fighting; en entire fleet pf plans were required to sink her, and when she sunk, she went out with a huge bang - that is a fact. The movie dramatizes the dedication and bravery of the Japanese sailor and the steadfast valor of the civilians. The movie is not a polemic. It neither excuses or apologizes Japanese policies. Of course, one can say that this movie does not square with the Japanese record of brutality during the war. But that does not mean that the themes of this movie are contrived. The Japanese government ordered the Yamato on a kamikaze mission. Whether this was heroic is a matter of debate. But what is certain is that the ship took a beating and 3,000 crew died, and that is a story that should not be forgotten. They fought and they died. As the movie shows, the Japanese were caught up in a war that produced a catastrophic defeat for them. It is just too bad that they had adopted a foreign policy that in retrospect was misguided and provocative, but it happened and hopefully it will not happen again.A few other comments: This movie alludes to but does not fully expand on how the Yamato was a symbol, not only for the Japanese, but for the United States. While the Yamato symbolized Japanese pride, for the United States it was symbol of aggression, and something that not only had to be destroyed but absolutely purged from the face of the planet. Hence, the United States devoted an entire fleet of planes to ensuring that the Yamato met an ignoble ending. The movie shows that how the Yamato was not only bombed, but was repeatedly strafed and torpedoed. According to historical accounts, the Yamato took at least twenty direct hits. What the movie also brings out was that the Yamato was on a kamikaze mission, so it was provided no air cover, which made it a virtual open target. The Yamato crew are portrayed as being valiant, but valiant for what and for whom? One scene shows where a fight breaks out between two factions, one who questioned the use of fighting and the other that was determined to fight on. However, this theme is not further explored. The whole question of treating 3,000 men as being expendable is a theme that could have been further explored too. The sinking of the Yamato should have provided enough cause for any rational government to conclude that further fighting was useless, but that did not happen. The war destined to drag on for another four months, during which time there took place the Battle of Okinawa and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all of which had catastrophic consequences for the Japanese. The movie also shows how discipline was enforced through corporal punishment, which puts the Japanese abuse of POWs in a broader cultural context. For the Japanese, at least in the military, beating up on people considered inferior was considered appropriate conduct and a legitimate form of discipline. Given the fanaticism of the Japanese military, it is not surprising that it took not one but two atomic bombs to finally convince them to stop fighting, and that was only after the emperor personally interceded. As the movie shows, World War Two was a disaster for Japan, and a tragedy for the Japanese people who had to pay the price for policy decisions that opened their country up to destruction and leaving a legacy that to this day continues to besmirch that country's reputation.

Given their desire to put the humiliation of the Showa period behind them and their understandable anti-militarism, I am glad to see the Japanese put out a realistic war movie that gets away from stereotypes. The story could be about the young men of any country in any war. Although the tag lines often read that it is about the Yamato on her last mission, this is really a backdrop for the portrayal of her crew as what they were, people. Multi dimensional, brave, flawed and dedicated. It also shows that the Americans were committed to press the attack until the job was done.Although there were (and always are in war movies) technical errors, the act of strafing gun crews is an admitted tactic of US Naval fighter pilots of the era. This made it safer for the torpedo and dive bombers. I was glad to see that they showed blood in the battle scenes (often not shown in naval battles), not because I like gore, but it helped bring to life the horror of battle.

Recap: Katsumi Kamio is not very old, just 15 years old, but with his nation Japan in war he decides to follow his brother and join the Imperial Navy. He gets posted on the pride of the navy, the world's largest and most modern battleship Yamato. The young recruits are convinced and determine to change the tide of war with the powerful ship or die a glorious death with it. Unfortunately, although the ship is newly built it is hopelessly obsolete without a fighter escort. Kamio, posted as an anti-aircraft gunner sees this firsthand. 60 years later, the daughter of a friend from Yamato comes to Kamio and wants to hire Kamio and his boat to go to the location of the recently rediscovered Yamato. The trip is not only a trip out to ocean but also a trip back in history and Kamio's memories.Comments: This is not a war-movie in that way that it focuses and follows the Yamato into battle and adrenalin-high scenes. No, this is the kind of war-movie that follows Kamio that finds himself on the Yamato and his friends, and the companionship that develops on the ship. The idea that to die a glorious death is foremost in almost everyone's minds, to bring glory to the country, the Navy and your family. To survive is shameful. Those two feelings, those ideas come to a hard collision when Yamato is sent on a final suicide mission to attack the invading American forces. Also the mission, as pointed out in the movie, the mission marks an end to an era, international and Japanese. Yamato was the crown in the line of battleships but hopelessly lost without air support.This is a remembrance and a way to live with the effects of the Second World War. The bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not mentioned much but those, and all other deaths of the war hangs like a shadow over the movie.Although it is not action-packed (although with a few blood-filled gruesome battles), quite long and the story known it never becomes dull. The companionship and the history of Kamio and his friends are really intriguing. And somehow you feel the weight of the movie, and it is definitely not only for Japanese.6/10

Huge scale tale of the battleship Yamato and its crew. from 1942 to its sinking. Told in flashback as memories are provoked in a survivor by a woman, the daughter of another survivor, wanting to visit the final resting place on the 60th anniversary of its sinking. This is a story of youthful idealism tinged and changed by the course of war and a culture that celebrates death in battle as something glorious. It examines why men fight and what can we hope to get out of war.This is a very good and moving film. For all of the clichés (is there a well worn plot device it doesn't have?) it does manage to touch the heart and the head. We really do care about the characters we see up on the screen, and what happens to them, death in a foolish adventure, moves us. At the same time we get to see the waste that is war and was the Japanese war effort in the final days of World War Two. Its made clear that the fight to the end mentality leaves no room for tomorrow. Its best expressed in a simple scene on the bridge of the ship. One of the officers is asked to explain the difference between chivalry, the Western code of war, and Bushido, the Japanese code. Bushido, he says is preparing for a death with no reward, Chivalry is trying to live a noble life. Its a difference that all of the men can see but which very few ever get the chance to live by. Even the survivors, the old man essentially telling the story, is haunted by the fact that he lived and everyone else died.As the film asks plainly, if we all die, who's going to be around to take advantage of our sacrifices? Its a question that needs to be asked in this age of suicide bombers. There is a great many other thematic threads running through this film that lift it out of the typical war movie pile.The cast is top notch. They manage to take what is often a clichéd script and to infuse it with the power of reality. Modern sequences aside, you care for these people and you are moved by what happens to them. The tears that well up in the final modern scenes come from the fact that the cast of the war sections is so good that you carry over the emotion. I wish that the modern sequences had given the actors something to do other than simply push the story into action.Technically the film is very impressive. The Yamato, is monster of a ship and its plain to see that great care was taken in recreating it. Its a beautiful movie to look at with the entire film having a wonderful sense of place and time. The two battle scenes are graphic in a way that I've never seen in a naval war film (if you don't like blood you may want to look elsewhere.) This is going to be something to rattle the windows with on DVD.If the film has any real flaw thats its length. The film is about two and a half hours long and to be honest it probably could have been shorter. I was getting fidgety during some of it. Its not that its bad, its just that the films pace allows you too much time to dwell on some of the by the numbers construction of the plot so you just want the film to get to the next bit (what another tearful goodbye?). It doesn't kill the film, it just makes it hard to truly get lost in the story.If you like war films, or good movies this is one to keep an eye out for. Just be ready to do a little digging since I'm not sure if this is going to get a regular release outside of Asia.