Bôkoku no îjisu

I saw this movie in Tokyo in one of the pre-showing events. It is such a huge-theme, carefully constructed movie that needs probably a few more times of viewing to fully digest for me, but my first reaction at the end of the movie was "oh, don't stop, I want to keep watching!"

There are many characters in this movie, each with a complicated background and reasons for his/her own acts. Instead of explaining all of them in detail, the movie uses "flashbacks" to imply these past facts. I enjoyed that method, but that requires a lot of imagination, and some people would never get it. Without the depth of these characters, the movie may look just confusing and/or flat. I read some negative reviews about this movie both by Japanese fans and US media, and I thought many of them stumbled on this point.

The acting of all the actors were excellent, especially the main character Sengoku, played by Hiroyuki Sanada ("The Last Samurai", "The Twilight Samurai"). He made the transition of this middle-aged petty officer into a super hero so convincing. Akira Terao made me cry so much especially at the end. Kiichi Nakai was charmingly scary, Koichi Sato was stylish, and the young Ryo Katsuji was so sharp.

I admit the technique used in this movie is not totally familiar with the US audience, who are used to watch easy-to-digest fast-food Hollywood movies. And I admit I felt some weaknesses myself - special effect was not perfect, some story lines are not convincing enough, especially the reasoning of the "traitors". But I could feel the passion of the people who made this movie, including the people at Japanese Self Defence Forces who gave the full-support to the movie shooting, and from the mid-point of the movie, I kept crying till the end. I was simply enjoying watching each scenes and excellent actors and did not want to stop watching.

I hope it will be available for international fans as well to enjoy. It is the movie for grown-ups.

Aegis is an entertaining movie. If you like action yarns like "Die Hard" or "Under Siege", this movie fills the bill. Betrayal in the upper ranks of the Japanese Navy allows a foreign agent to threaten Japan with a deadly chemical bomb. A Japanese destroyer equipped with the AEGIS system, a defensive mechanism that renders it nearly impervious to conventional air assault, is carrying the stolen weapon to Tokyo. How to stop it?? There is a lot of political undercurrent in the movie. If you've looked at some of the other comments from Japanese viewers you get some idea of what it's all about. What is Japan's role in the world? Is a nation under threat, as Japan now sees itself, able to live with a pacifist constitution? These questions are asked repeatedly in the film and events suggest what the answers could or should be.

It is interesting that the weapon threatening Tokyo is of American making, that the agent's acquisition of the weapon is due to some sort of American blundering and, as one character in the movie relates matters, it is now Japan's job to clean up the mess. Additionally, the nationality of the "foreign agent" is never identified, but his name and several clues strongly suggest, to this viewer at least, that he is of North Korean extraction. One could conjecture at length what all of this implies, but I'll leave that to the individual viewer.

I would add that, at about 2 hours 15 minutes, the movie is a little too long. Some of the hand-wringing over questions of nationhood and national defense are inserted at awkward moments for an action yarn. But judging from Japanese viewer comments these scenes had some resonance. A less passionate audience is apt to see this for the melodrama it is. As far as Hollywood "fast food" content, this film is chock full of it. Some of the action sequences are clearly cliché and borrow heavily from older American flicks like "Die Hard". In spite of these several weaknesses, this is still enjoyable entertainment.

This movie,"AEGIS" contrasts dynamic and static scene very well. In dynamic part we can see powerful Aegis ship figure, thrilling fighter F2 aircraft, and main actor, Sanada's enthusiastic movements. In static part, on the other hand, we can insight real human heart, Sengoku's (Sanada) strong will to defend his ship and crews. Miyaji's(Terao) stubborn will to revenge his own nation in order to requiem his sun's death. Kisaragi's (Katsuchi) breakthrough mission with several dangers. These characters are beautifully described with their real heart, willingness, and objectives. These static human descriptions are well harmonized with dynamic scene.

This movie questions us "Do you have something you want to protect in your life with the cost of your own life?" Further more, following questions can be derived from this movie. "What can you do if your country is facing some kind of danger" or "What is nation's ideology?"

Thus this movie makes us re-think how lucky we are in peaceful world right now. At the same time this movie seems suggesting that we should live with something fulfill, meaningful and valuable. This movie is not really appearing political objectives itself, I guess, but rather sincere human heart. I recommend this movie not only for those who love self-defense (particularly, warship, aircraft lovers) but also for those who love real human.

Before going to the cinema, I checked a Japanese movie web site, and was surprised by that fact the average rating was very low while the number of postings were many. After seeing the movie, I understood the reason. It is a part of fun to ponder about the scenes you could not understand well in a movie. But in this movie it is meaningless. The original novel, a bestseller, is a complicated long one of 650 pages, which I have not read. It seems this movie have shrunk the whole story into 2 hours proportionally. This is why there are scenes that are too ambiguous or not linked to any other scenes. Unless you have read the original novel, I believe it is waste of time to ponder about them. If you see this movie as an entertaining action film, well it is enjoyable. But perhaps the director Sakamoto intended to convey more, which is failed.

This movie reminded me a bit of a mix between The Rock and Under Siege, except more serious and realistic, so less "Hollywood". It does start out really interesting and intriguing, however it just becomes a bit boring after the first half. There just isn't much suspense, too much uninteresting dialogue and the antagonists' motives could have been explored more. You can see that it could have been a classic action movie, it certainly wasn't for a lack of budget or production values. It's not bad, but kind of a waste. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, but I wouldn't discourage them from watching it either.