The Silent Service

Those who have criticised this drama clearly missed the point.

This is an intelligent and thoughtful drama which addresses the current balance of power in the world. That the American projection of influence is not necessarily in the interest of its allies, especially Japan, and including perhaps South Korea and Taiwan.

I found it refreshing to have an alternative view, and would encourage those fans of American military might to consider how others view this.

I was totally involved in the arguments and the standard of acting, especially from the Japanese characters was excellent. It does suffer a little in that the American characters are a little two dimensional.

It is a slow burn, but well worth the watch!

Based on an antique manga, this drivel from Amazon is a big waste of time.

Given the budget they had a great opportunity to produce something on the scale of "Hunt for Red October" meets "Tora Tora Tora". Instead what we have is daytime soap with enough dull dialogue to put an elephant to sleep. Besides protagonist and the antagonist are shown as superhuman all knowing people who get all the right coincidences as they need.

The action scene, if you call them that; are a snooze fest and demonstrate a clear lack of military knowledge and tactical understanding on part of the director.

Overall I'd give zero rating if I could.

It is interesting as it pits the US against Japan. Japanese Captain Kaieda is brilliant in navigation and tactics and has managed to steal a top secret US-Japanese nuclear submarine, the Sea Bat, and has declared he is the leader of the independent nation of Yamato. That raises concerns for Japan, and also irritates the Americans. The 7th Fleet is mobilized to track down the submarine. A Japanese Captain, Kukamachi is sent to intercept the Sea Bat in a diesel powered submarine. It becomes an interesting game of cat and mouse, and Kaieda uses some very interesting tactics. Episode 5 is perhaps the most important and also shows the flaws in the series. The US considers Kaieda a terrorist, and naturally America never negotiates with a terrorist. So the Sea Bat is to be hunted down and destroyed, which is not what Japan wants to happen, and this results in a rift, and also Presidential testosterone is on display, and the US comes across as a bully. As part of the effort to track down and destroy the Sea Bat, the 3rd fleet also joins forces and the Sea Bat easily sinks one of the US nuclear carriers. The CGI isn't terrible, but they have both US carriers identical, down to the arrangement of aircraft on the decks. That seems sloppy. Also, as they follow ships and submarines by sonar, the sonar scope shows identifications of the ships like would be seen on air control radar at an airport. That seems unlikely. It seems to be set up for another season.

While a lot of reviews mention accuracy of props and cgi showing ships looking the same, you need to remember that this is a drama and a great 'what-if' scenario.

What's gripping is how a single submariner is attempting to make an upset in global power.

You will wonder if this is a mad attempt or an objective to meet a particular outcome.

The strategy is always one step ahead played with some great finesse.

It's a drama, so it's going to be slow but not boring.

Unlike most of the other so called good junk out there where they dive into each persons character and history just to drag out the 40 mins, this just touches lightly and is relevant to the situation.

There was no overacting and extra melodrama, or overtalked gender issues or communal suppression etc which was a relief!

Many serials I've used the forward button to skip this and finally it's 10 mins.

However this didn't let hit the forward button, which speaks for itself.

If you read novels or books then watch this.

Great plot not predictable you will keep wondering what's the next move and how will he succeed in his final objective.

Confusing and frequently slow made watching the series difficult to finish. 8 episodes took me maybe 12-15 different viewing times due to the pacing.

AFAIK, it was originally a manga series with an anime version and now this. Don't know anything about Japanese manga, anime, etc, but this series appears to be close translation of a successful comic book source with JV screenwriters without any military consultants, a decent budget, making visuals a priority over substance, character interaction, and logical plot development.

Who would really enjoy this movie? Maybe 10-12 year old boys if they skip most of the political stuff. Americans were obviously not the target audience given the preponderance of stupid and simple Americans.

5 stars for some interesting story ideas, special effects, and many nice visuals. If you demand realism, skip this movie.