El Eterno Zero

A brother and sister initiate a personal project to find out more about their grandfather, a World War II kamikaze pilot. When they discover their grandfather was universally regarded as a coward, their enthusiasm begins to wane. But the brother persists, discovering there is more to the story.

This is a subtle film, foregrounding the personal consequences of war for rounded, authentic characters. In the process, the film astutely stays away from either justifying or apologising for Japan's war actions. Jun'ichi Okada is a revelation as the pilot instructor who attempts to save his young charges from the excesses of his superiors, often at great personal sacrifice. He makes a promise to his wife, but then seems to compromise it in order to be loyal to his men. The resolution of this conflict makes for a powerful and well-plotted storyline.

The flashbacks to the war are engaging and dramatic, but the film's weak point is the bland Haruma Miura guiding us through the story. In a scene conspicuous for its shallow clunkiness, he berates his friends for equating tokkutai with modern-day suicide bombers. No real camaraderie seems to exist between the friends, and the whole scene seems designed merely to relay the point that modern-day fanaticism and historical Japanese 'heroism' cannot be equated. It is a fop to present-day rightist revisionism that is unworthy of the rest of the film.

Eien no Zero shows ordinary people living extraordinary lives in extraordinary circumstances. A thoughtful, emotional film that, casting flaws aside, proves cathartic and thought-provoking in equal measure.

This movie was a big hit in Japan which is good because it is essentialy an anti war film. The military detail is outstanding, right down to camoflage changes to aircraft and ships throughout the war. The Impirial Japanese Navy did start the war th the best pilots and best plane (Mistubishi Zero) as quoted in the movie. A lot of Japanese pilots were already veterens of the war in Manchuria (China). In the long run as Admiral Yamamoto feared the US became unbeatable once their industrial and economic power ramped up. Without a doubt the fact the allies cracked the Japanese naval code contributed to the allied victory (at Midway especialy). The nuclear bombs and then the Soviet Union declaring war on Japan forced the Japanese surrender saving countless lives no doubt. As a side note, Japan and the Russians are technicaly still at war and have land claims against each other.

Despite being one of the better films hiding among the titles on Netflix, 'The Eternal Zero' doesn't seem to have attracted much attention in the west. Given that it's a film that casts a sympathetic look at Japan's kamikaze pilots though that's not exactly surprising. It's already been subject to a wealth of controversy by critics in Japan and abroad, especially as there's one pivotal scene that compares them (favourably) to modern day suicide bombers.

This is a shame because at it's heart, 'The Eternal Zero' is a defiantly anti-war movie and a genuinely moving one. Beginning at a funeral, it focuses on siblings Kentaro and Keiko Oishi and their quest to find out more about the Grandfather they never knew. They soon discover that their relative Kyuzo Miyabe was a fighter pilot that died in a kamikaze attack on an aircraft carrier but throughout the war, he was almost universally hated by his fellow pilots. They meet with several veterans who all accuse Miyabe of cowardice for avoiding combat at any cost and after being shouted at by several angry old men, are understandably keen to throw in the towel. Then they decide to go for one last interview and things start to get more complex.

From there, the film unfolds Citizen Kane-style through interviews and flashbacks. It turns out Oishi was in truth a brilliant pilot, but one who also desperately wanted to live and return home to his wife. This made him thoroughly unpopular in a culture which at the time venerated the honourable sacrifice, but it also makes him something of a cypher character. Nobody in their right mind would want to smash themselves into a warship in a burning jet plane after all, so how does someone come to be persuaded to do that? And could it happen to any of us or was it something that only Imperial Japan could convince it's people to do?

What follows is a moving story of courage disguised as cowardice and a man who firmly believed in life at all cost rather than pointless deaths. There's a few brilliant scenes where characters juggle certain death against uncertain life, not least where Oishi convinces a fellow pilot not to turn back for a suicide run, only to wind up suffering an even worse fate because of it.

On a technical level too the film does a great job in recreating aerial combat through CGI (a practical necessity given the lack of functioning Zeros nowadays). The focus isn't on the combat though and anyone expecting constant dogfights will be disappointed. The Battle of Midway scene for example ends all too soon and often, we see the aftermath of battle rather than the battle itself. It makes up for it though in the human drama and when Oishi finds himself flying escort to his own students and has to watch them squander their lives pointlessly, it's both visually impressive and moving.

Anyone who still harbours resentment for the Japanese and their actions during WW2 however will still hate this movie. There's no mention of the atrocities of Nanking or the mistreatment of POWs for example, but then they're not the focus of the film. This is about impressionable young men being brainwashed into throwing their lives away and their ancestors struggling to come to terms with it. In that sense, Kentaro and Keiko are representative of modern Japan itself; they don't have to approve of their own history in order to sympathise with it. This is a great film, but it'll provoke a heated argument or two, a fact which it foreshadows in a night out that goes disastrously wrong.

I would put this in one of my top favorite films. It's as good as "Letters from Iwo Jima"

Was the lives worth it for the future of Japan?

It's kind of like "The Notebook" meets "Pearl Harbor". (well, better than those two films!) If you had to choose love between your own family and country/men; many had to face the same dilemma. People can have different perspective whether one is a coward or a real hero.

I'm not sure how I missed this film when it first came out, but I recently watched it and I was engaged throughout the whole film.

The director Takashi Yamazaki also makes really large scale Hollywood-like production quality.

There's many war films out there, but this one is actually refreshing and meaningful. It really hits hard on the impact and value of life - how precious it really is.

I really liked how it brought up the controversy/showed and compared how people/kids of modern Japan also judged the way they saw the kamikaze pilots who fought for them. Some people argue they were just crazy brainwashed terrorists, but not everything is just simply black and white.

The film stars Juichi Okada, a famous former Japenese boy band group member called V6, who plays the main pilot. I was surprised he could act so well, as he was amazing in the film.

I liked how the film had that small subtle connection/twist of the old man with the security cameras in his home/samurai sword; you'd only get it if you were paying attention.

I highly recommend this film. It's definitely one of the quality war films made.

Outstanding. Epic. Straight to the upper echelons of my all time greatest war movies list. I had never heard of it until I recently read a list of films with the best flying sequences and the air battle scenes are riveting. Caveat: if you don't like CGI, you won't like this. It's 2013 CGI, not flawless, but the sequences are so ambitious and well planned that if it had been put together by the people who did "Dunkirk" it would be one of the greatest war movies made. (It's on my list, but that's my list.) And that includes the predominant very well written, emotionally satisfying drama plot that atones for any nit-picky production flaws. "The Eternal Zero has come under criticism for its nationalistic and sympathetic depiction of the Kamikaze pilots." Oh, STFU. There is nothing 'glorious' about it and if you can watch something like this without sympathy... No matter why or who you fight, the fighters are proud of their victories and devastated by their defeats. I've certainly never seen a better 'Japanese side of things' film.