If I were a Japanese and not an extreme right-wing person, I would also give this movie a five-star, because the Japanese soldier’s angle described in the movie is a human angle, which is very acceptable to the Japanese; it also shows that the Japanese army is falling into it. After the desperate situation, he showed his loyalty to the country and at the same time brought militaristic reflection.
It is a pity that I am Chinese, which is destined to be unable to examine this war with a calm attitude. I just looked at it with my national memory. I can't take off the colored glasses and can't hide my feelings. Therefore, I can only give four stars at most.
I'm ignorant. I only knew that this movie was well-known before. The poster made me think it was a story about sending letters. Hehe, then as the plot developed, I knew I was mostly guessing. It’s just that I think maybe if the movie only portrays a letter from an ordinary Japanese soldier, with some twists and turns, it’s clichéd, but it will probably make me more receptive.
The movie tells the story of the Japanese army's counterattack and guarding Iwo Jima in the late World War II. Most of these soldiers are ordinary people, bakers, clothes shops at home, and even people with personality like Changxi and Kuribayashi (although they seem to have been influenced by Western culture, Americans are really). I have no objection to such a portrayal. The film director's intention is mostly to accuse the war itself. On the one hand, it is a certain criticism of the extreme aspects of Japanese culture. On the other hand, it seems to show the backbone of being a soldier in the face of threats to the motherland. This duality is still good.
One of my favorite scenes in the movie is that Changxi reads the home letter of American soldier Sam (although I think a military officer with a brain will not read it, because it shakes the military's heart, Khan). Ha ha, ignore the problem mentioned above for the time being. The biggest lethality of this letter is that it is very ordinary, just like Shimizu said, and my mother wrote it. Yes, these Americans are ordinary people just like them, so what is the meaning of war? Why would the same person kill you to death like this? In the movie, the letters run through, and it is the letters that restore these soldiers to ordinary people, or this is a complaint of how the war machine deprived normal people of their small lives. So the normal emotions after watching this movie are mostly deep sympathy and a little contemplation. Obviously, I can't do it.
So what is the problem?
In this war, these Japanese soldiers appeared in the image of rebels and defending the country, so what about them as the invaders, the soldiers who slaughtered the unarmed people with bayonets, what would they write, today we kill How many people are there, or are you talking about other happy things casually?
It is inevitable that another movie, Lu Chuan's "Nanjing", although many people don't want to see it, because of the perspective of a Japanese soldier, a humane description. However, I have no objection to this perspective. As the director said, we should not sell our pain as a victim, but should look at the war from a higher perspective. I have always remembered a scene in the movie, the slaughter of Chinese prisoners and this group of Japanese soldiers joking and laughing at the riverside, I was shocked to see how ordinary they were when they took off their military uniforms and faced my compatriots. The devil is cruel to people and not so terrible. What is terrible is the cruelty of people to people.
This is why I always feel awkward when watching this movie. The director and screenwriter discuss the status of Japanese soldiers as defenders and even the weak; and as the initiators of this war, their main identities It is the aggressor. As far as my position is concerned, considering the war from the previous point of view is obviously not deep enough, and it is somewhat beautifying.
From this perspective, "Nanjing Nanjing" is ideologically superior, but the biggest problem lies in this. The reason why it is criticized as a flattery is because this kind of reflection is not made by the aggressor itself, but by the aggressor. We impose it on our wishful thinking. I also hope that one day I can see the reflection of the Japanese themselves, about aggression, massacres, militarism, the spirit of Bushido, and Japanese cultural traditions. As for time, hehe, I am not optimistic at all. From the current point of view, it is still difficult for them to have the courage to make such a criticism.
In addition, I want to talk more. In this world, there are no just wars, only unjust wars and wars fought against unjust wars.
But war is always deformed. Even unjust rebels will catch hatred and become cruel, even though we always allow it. War will also expose the ugliest and darkest aspects of this human nature, and they are usually displayed vividly and exquisitely on the invaders.
The saddest part of the war is probably to make the two sides forget each other and are humans just like themselves. This is the obvious truth.
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