Movielogr
The Imperial Navy (1981)
Directed by Shûe Matsubayashi
Twitter Facebook Google+Overview
A lavish retelling of the true story of the final voyage and ultimate destruction and sinking of the battleship Yamato, Japan’s greatest flagship during the Second World War.
Length 145 minutes
Actors
Keiju Kobayashi | Toshiyuki Nagashima | Kenichi Kaneda | Yûko Kotegawa | Kiichi Nakai | Yoshitaka Tanba | Tatsuya Mihashi | Kōji Takahashi | Ichirô Zaitsu | Hiroyuki Nagato | Ichirô Nakatani | Takuya Fujioka | Kei Satō | Shigeru Kôyama | Eitarô Ozawa | Nobuo Kaneko | Makoto Satō | Tôru Abe | Jun Tazaki | Susumu Fujita | Tetsurō Tamba | Tomoko Naraoka | Kayo Matsuo | Chikako Yuri | Mitsuyo Kawashima | Sayaka Ono | Isao Hashimoto | Osami Nabe | Junkichi Orimoto | Michirô Minami | Hiroshi Kondô | Hiroshi Hasegawa | Shigeki Ishida | Toshitaka Itô | Masao Imanishi | Kentarô Kaji | Torahiko Hamada | Shoji Nakayama | Akihiko Hirata | Kotaro Tomita | Tôru Ibuki | Akiyoshi Kitaura | Hiroaki Tanabe | Osamu Sakuta | Shûji Kawabe | Shigeo Katô | Koichi Endo | Isao Takanami | Takeshi Ôbayashi | Junichi Hosokawa | Bunji Hayata | Shin Roppongi | Hirokazu Takeda | Akira Nagatsuma | Tetsuo Hidaka | Yuuhei Kurachi | Masaharu Kasuya | Fujio Miyagawa | Tadayoshi Tokutake | Satoshi Hasegawa | Saburo Nagano | Koji Fujii | Ichiro Shinjitsu | Mitsuru Sawa | Shûji Kagawa | Yoshiaki Taniguchi | Saiki Masuda | Tatsuaki Kaneko | Ichiro Omura | Hisashi Hayase | Kenyu Shimizu | Kenpachirô Satsuma | Takeshi Ikeda | Tadao Uchida | Eiji Karasawa | Isamu Kurosaki | Junkyu Moriyama | Koji Tomita | Seiji Nagano | Yuji Kumagai | Kenji Yasuda | Akira Okura | Junnosuke Hiramitsu | Koji Tsuruta | Hisaya Morishige
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01/27/2024 | TV | Broadcast | TV | 6 stars |
| (Average) 6 stars |
Viewing Notes
DKUTV kicked off the new year with a tribute to Kenpachiro Satsuma, the suit actor who recently passed. Of the eighteen movies programmed this is another one I had not seen (the first one was HONG KIL-DONG). This is another epic WWII film that highlights the last voyage / mission of the Battleship Yamato. And one where they throw practically every working actor from Toho Studios into the movie, hence the inclusion of Kenpachiro as one of the random soldiers. Love seeing Tetsuro Tamba, Jun Tazaki and Susumu Fujita in primary roles.
The first half is rather academic with lots discussions and meetings about the missions and war strategy like should we surprise attack Pearl Harbor, pros and cons. tbh it was hard to keep my eyes open during that hour. Then in the second hour when things are looking grave for the Japanese forces, they plan the final mission of the Yamato. Things pick up and get interesting. Surprisingly the miniature work looks subpar and isn’t shot particularly well.
The drama with the family and their two sons that join the Navy is the most compelling stuff. At the funeral one of the reporters says to the family, “you must be so proud to have lost two sons in the war.” Ugh just awful. This is movie that tries to walk that line between serving the country and compassion or regret of how the war was managed (the Admiral is against the Yamato mission bc he doesn’t want to sacrifice the lives of 3000 men). Makoto Sato has a small part and he’s great. Apparently Akihiko Hirata is also in this but I didn’t see him unless he popped in when my eyes were closed.
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