Director Narushima aims high with this war biopic on famous Commander-in-chief, Yamamoto. While lengthy in its running time, its often slow-burning pace seems to add to that, although not particularly in a negative sense.
The Admiral is a pretty damn good film, and in terms of war movies based around Pearl harbour, is perhaps one of the more historically accurate, as well as neutral with very few biased views. Produced by Japanese movie studio legends, Toei - the film is pretty epic in story offering plenty of drama, with some nice CGI inspired dog-fights and naval action.
The story was created based on the long-lost diaries of Yamamoto himself, written between 1939 and 1941. Star Koji Yakusho (13 Assassins; Memoirs Of A Geisha) delivers a great performance as Yamamoto, with the rest of the cast impressing just as much. While not the kind of film I will be popping on again anytime soon, I was highly impressed with the overall production, and did find it to be an interesting watch.
It's certainly less cheesy than Michael Bay's 'Pearl Harbour' and definitely interesting to see such an event from the other side - and learning what caused Japan to take the steps it did in the war.
Overall: An impressive movie, The Admiral is worth the watch!
