80 years ago, on 15 August 1945, Japan surrendered. Coinciding with the 80th anniversary, the movie 雪風 YUKIKAZE premiered in Japanese cinemas today.
The movie is a work of fiction, although it is based on actual people and events around the actual destroyer Yukikaze, which survived World War Two. It may look like a war movie but it is actually a human drama story, focusing on two characters: the commanding officer and master chief of the ship. The story takes the form of recollections by a former crew member, going back to the Battle of Midway and through major battles, culminating in Yukikaze's final wartime mission of escorting the battleship Yamato. It also touched on Yukikaze's postwar role in repatriation and being transferred as war reparation.
The story is along the line of "remember the war so that we don't repeat the suffering again; people were told to fight and die even though the upper leadership knew they could not win", which makes it similar to other recent Japanese movies about World War Two. The visual and sound effects weren't exactly superb, and while it did feel nice watching the movie on the big screen, those who only care about the story can comfortably watch it at home on TV too. A minor detail that I didn't really like: it is a movie about World War Two, but there was only one character that died, and they held a sea funeral for ONE person. That is not really realistic, since Yukikaze had just survived a battle, and it was unlikely to have suffered only ONE fatality.
Still, the production committee threw in a large cast of notable actors. I guess many of them also felt it was an honour to be involved in an 80th anniversary war movie. The final message from the cast felt a bit out of place, even though the message itself was along the theme of the story. But explicitly stating the message made it feel redundant and awkward. But I do think it is commendable that people in Japan continue to believe that such stories must be told so that future generations continue to remember World War Two and not let the lessons fade away with time.
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