For Those We Love

The story

In 1943, as Japan's WWII effort falters, a vice-admiral proposes training squadrons of "volunteer" flyers to crash their armed planes into Allied warships. Yarn follows the lives of kamikaze pilots, as remembered by an aging Kyushu restaurateur who cherishes their memory. Honoring the dead and multiple military anthems may stir the soul of some Japanese, but elsewhere auds will make a one-way trip for exits. Battle scenes are well-executed and script delivers some memorable scenes, but overall competent helming and thesping are powerless over writer-cum-Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishiara's repetitive storytelling. A post-war postscript adds considerable length to an already over-extended narrative. Tech credits are good quality.

Cast

S Satoshi TokushigeKapitän Nakanishi Y Yosuke KubozukaLeutnant Bando M Michitaka TsutsuiLeutnant Tabata K Keiko KishiTome Torihama M Mikako TabeReiko Torihama Y Yasuyuki MaekawaKaneyama T Tomoya NakamuraSoichi Kawai D Dai WatanabeStaff Sergeant Kato N Noboru KimuraSecond lieutenant Abe R Ren HulkSergeant first class Matsumoto Y Yuji MiyashitaStaff sergeant Ishikura S Shinichi TANAKAAraki

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K Katsutaka FuruhataShigeo Oshima N Noriko NakagoshiIchieda Tsuruta S Sachiko SakuraiHisako Bando N Naho TodaRyoko Tabata Y Yoshiko MiyazakiKawai's mother M Minori Terada K Kanae KatsunoMioko Torihama R Ryohei Abe T Tohru Emori田端由蔵 K Kenichi EndoColonel Azuma M Masatô IbuVice Admiral Takijiro Onishi S Satoru Matsuo D Dennis FaltAmerican naval officer C Cleve GrayBloodied Sailor I Ichiro Hashimoto R Renji IshibashiShojo Tsuruta H Hiroshi KatsunoColonel Azuma K Keisaku Kimura M Mikage H Haruku Ren S Suzunosuke TanakaShimizu Y Yoshida Ayano T Takeo NakaharaMilitary police H Hiroyuki NagatoOshima's grandfather K Koji MatobaNavy captain Yukio Seki S Shinichiro Matsuurakamikaze pilot C Chieko Iinuma N Naoki Yukawa K Kazuhiko Takeuchi