Film Muser Rating : 4.5 / 5
Release Date : January 12, 2007
Running Time : 140 minutes
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Letters from Iwo Jima tells the story of the 1945 American invasion of Iwo Jima during the tail end of the second World War from the Japanese perspective. At this point in the war, Japan had suffered major losses, placing their military on the verge of defeat. Because of the depleted forces, the troops at Iwo Jima had no support, and saw themselves preparing for what they felt was a hopeless cause. The film follows two individuals in particular, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) and Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya) as they prepare for battle, while also reflecting on their lives back at home.

Letters from Iwo Jima as Directed by Clint Eastwood

Letters from Iwo Jima is directed by Clint Eastwood who received “Best Achievement in Directing” and “Best Motion Picture of the Year” Oscar nominations. I loved how the colour was extremely washed out for the scenes set on the island, giving you the sense of how dreary Iwo Jima was, while scenes set off of the island were filled with vibrant colours. This style really conveyed the emotional state of the soldiers while they were on and off of the island.

I thought it was really refreshing to see a war movie from a perspective other than the United States or Europe. So often we see the enemy soldiers demonized in the typical war movie. But in Letters from Iwo Jima we get to see that the Japanese soldiers were not much different than their enemies. They didn’t want to be there fighting. They had loved ones back home, and they wanted to just fulfill their duty and get back to their lives. They were just part of the Japanese war machine, doing what they had to do. I think it was great that Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, and Robert Lorenz, three Americans, would choose to produce such a movie that would be tough to market in North America.

Kazunari Ninomiya as Saigo does a great job of portraying a soldier who has no desire to be one. He is a young baker, married, and expecting a child, and comes off as a care-free kid who is anything but a soldier. Ken Watanabe plays Tadamichi Kuribayashi, a General brought in to lead the battle. With ties to the United States, the General knows his enemy and despite his knowledge, finds himself fighting not only the Americans, but his own officers as they lose faith in him during this hopeless battle.

This film is a definite must-see and is now available on DVD. Letters from Iwo Jima not only shows us the human side of a wartime enemy, but also how we all may act while in a no-win situation. This is a war movie, and there are some brutal battle scenes, but this is not the main focus of the film. It is about the soldiers, the lives they wanted to return to, and their battle with a lost cause.

Memorable Scene
During the battle, one of the Japanese units capture an American soldier. The officer Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), an Equestrian competitor from the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, orders his medic to treat the prisoner. Nishi finds a letter on the American soldier and reads it to his unit. The letter is from the soldier’s mother and as he reads it, the Japanese soldiers realize that he is not a monster, or a savage like they have been told, but that he is not much different than themselves.

Note: this film is presented in Japanese with English subtitles.