Holding to the adage that every story has two sides, Clint Eastwood takes a second look at one of World War II's most decisive battles, this time from the Japanese perspective, in Letters from Iwo Jima (Warner Bros.), the director's emotionally compelling companion to Flags of Our Fathers, which dealt with the campaign through the eyes of American GIs.
Bookended by present-day sequences of excavators unearthing correspondence buried decades earlier, the drama charts the combat experiences of the Japanese soldiers entrenched on the island, including Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a young baker who wants to make it home to see his new baby; Shimizu (Ryo Kase), a newcomer who's looked upon with suspicion by the other men; and the chivalrous Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), a former Olympic equestrian medalist who's treated like a celebrity among the troops.
Leading them is Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe), a man of honor and firm patriotism struggling to reconcile his own convictions with those of his country.
Essentially a multiple character study, the plot follows the men as they prepare for the massive US invasion and the ensuing capture by American forces of the strategically key Mount Suribachi, atop which the iconic flag-raising photograph was taken.
The resourceful Kuribayashi orders the digging of a network of tunnels connecting the island's many caves from which the Japanese could mount an unconventional defense.
The two films are a set visually as well as thematically with both sharing the same gritty, visceral realism and desaturated palette dominated by gray.
Using letters as a humanizing device works well, as when Kuribayashi, on the eve of battle, writes home to his wife expressing a husband's regret over not completing some work on the kitchen.
Eastwood's depiction of the Japanese shows both the good, most nobly exemplified by Nishi, and the bad as in Lieutenant Ito (Shidou Nakamura), who represents the fanatical nationalism that fueled the wartime mentality of many in the ranks. This militant fervor reaches its grisly apex in a scene where a squad, to preserve its honor, elects to commit suicide. Several other characters take their own lives, acts which though morally untenable by Christian standards must be taken in the context of traditional Japanese culture.
If Flags was about the nature of heroism, the message here is clearly about our shared humanity and ignorance as a root of international conflict.
In one of the more poignant moments, Nishi, who counts Hollywood stars among his friends, provides medical assistance to a wounded American Marine. Later he does something even more remarkable: He talks to him, just one of this strongly anti-war film's attempts to argue for communication and understanding as the mortar for peace. Taken together, both movies provide powerful equilibrium to the subject, but each is also well able to stand on its own.
Almost completely in Japanese with subtitles.
The film contains intense and graphic battlefield violence, several gruesome suicides and some crude expressions. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
