This was a movie that if you were not interested in history would be boring and although it had some of Japan's most respected actors it still felt like the director didn't want to allow them to show the passion of the time. Koji Yakusho who played Yamamoto in Isoroku Yamamoto, the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet and he was a mirror of this character. I feel that Japanese directors tend to make all of their famous historical figures liberally open minded and victims of their times. In hindsight so do American directors but I don't want to watch an American film I want a Japanese film.
Tsutomu Yamazaki portrayal of Prime Minister Suzuki suffered the same fate and here we have another respected Japanese actor who I have seen do wonderful roles. The only character that we never see much at all in many movies is Emperor Showa. Many directors prefer to show various Emperor's as omnipotent and Masahiro Motoki in this role opened up the historical figure a little more making him more human to the watcher.
I felt a little let down by the movie and it appears that a taking of US $7,431,985.36 in the first 2 weeks shows that the younger film goers just don't want to have lessons forced down their throat on a night out at the movies with friends.
Tsutomu Yamazaki portrayal of Prime Minister Suzuki suffered the same fate and here we have another respected Japanese actor who I have seen do wonderful roles. The only character that we never see much at all in many movies is Emperor Showa. Many directors prefer to show various Emperor's as omnipotent and Masahiro Motoki in this role opened up the historical figure a little more making him more human to the watcher.
I felt a little let down by the movie and it appears that a taking of US $7,431,985.36 in the first 2 weeks shows that the younger film goers just don't want to have lessons forced down their throat on a night out at the movies with friends.