The Silent Service (沈黙の艦隊) live adaptation movie opened in Japanese theatres today, and having watched the anime in the past, plus flipped through a few pages of the manga, I was really excited to see how they would portray the U.S. in this story (which didn't put the U.S. in a very flattering light...) Especially because the JMSDF, which is very close to the US Navy, was cooperating in the filming of the movie.
The theatre was more packed than I expected. It was the first show of the day, at its largest screen, and the place was more or less full! This is very much in contrast to when I watched Alice to Therese no Maboroshi Kōjō recently.
The movie itself was slightly less than 2 hours (I think around 115 minutes) but it was really exciting throughout the entire movie. There was dialogue and action, and even the dialogue was well paced to make sure that it didn't become too lengthy. A lot of the action had to be done by computer graphics (since it took place underwater and involved submarines) but the quality was really good.
Right at the start of the movie, there was an implosion, which, given the recency of the Titan submersible incident, many would understand what it is about. This was followed by almost two hours of action, explosions, political talk, followed by more action, explosions, and there was really no time to take your eyes off the screen. I was truly glad I finished my popcorn at the start of the movie.
As for the story, it adapted until the part when Seabat/Yamato was about to head towards the first country it wants to seek an alliance with. I did notice some changes to the story. For example, Hayami, the XO of Tatsunami has been changed to a female officer, and there were a few original characters added to the story to provide a different backstory for Kaieda and Fukamachi. This new backstory was probably added to bring in more actors for the movie and maybe some other plot lines in sequels, but at least it didn't get in the way of the main story. Having female crew in a JMSDF submarine, though, was an interesting take, since this story was written back in a time when women were not allowed to serve onboard combatants in the JMSDF, much less say a submarine. Today, though, women are allowed to serve onboard JMSDF submarines (a very recent development) so it is not really that bad an idea to have a female XO.
International politics and U.S. arrogance was one aspect of the original manga and anime adaptation, and I was surprised that they kept this element. Okay, this is a key part of the story, but given Japan's relationship with the U.S., I would have thought they would have somehow changed the story to not make the U.S. look like baddies. Well, I think they managed to at least tone it down a bit, keeping this element without destroying one of the key elements of the story. The U.S. is still portrayed as a superpower that, to protect its own interest, is willing to act on its own without consulting its allies, no matter how close that relationship may be. The US Navy is competent but arrogant, and that arrogance led to its downfall in encounters with the Seabat/Yamato.
Given the point where the movie ended, there is probably a chance for sequels, depending on the movie's performance at the box office and streaming platforms. I am looking forward to Amazon announcing the sequel!
Official movie website in Japanese
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