I would put this in one of my top favorite films. It's as good as "Letters from Iwo Jima"
Was the lives worth it for the future of Japan?
It's kind of like "The Notebook" meets "Pearl Harbor". (well, better than those two films!) If you had to choose love between your own family and country/men; many had to face the same dilemma. People can have different perspective whether one is a coward or a real hero.
I'm not sure how I missed this film when it first came out, but I recently watched it and I was engaged throughout the whole film.
The director Takashi Yamazaki also makes really large scale Hollywood-like production quality.
There's many war films out there, but this one is actually refreshing and meaningful. It really hits hard on the impact and value of life - how precious it really is.
I really liked how it brought up the controversy/showed and compared how people/kids of modern Japan also judged the way they saw the kamikaze pilots who fought for them. Some people argue they were just crazy brainwashed terrorists, but not everything is just simply black and white.
The film stars Juichi Okada, a famous former Japenese boy band group member called V6, who plays the main pilot. I was surprised he could act so well, as he was amazing in the film.
I liked how the film had that small subtle connection/twist of the old man with the security cameras in his home/samurai sword; you'd only get it if you were paying attention.
I highly recommend this film. It's definitely one of the quality war films made.