For Those We Love
2007In 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.
Acted in
Satoshi Tokushige
as Kapitän Nakanishi
Yosuke Kubozuka
as Leutnant Bando
Michitaka Tsutsui
as Leutnant Tabata
Keiko Kishi
as Tome Torihama
Mikako Tabe
as Reiko Torihama
Yasuyuki Maekawa
as Kaneyama
Tomoya Nakamura
as Soichi Kawai
Dai Watanabe
as Staff Sergeant Kato
Noboru Kimura
as Second lieutenant Abe
Ren Hulk
as Sergeant first class Matsumoto
Yuji Miyashita
as Staff sergeant Ishikura
Shinichi TANAKA
as Araki
Katsutaka Furuhata
as Shigeo Oshima
Noriko Nakagoshi
as Ichieda Tsuruta
Sachiko Sakurai
as Hisako Bando
Naho Toda
as Ryoko Tabata
Yoshiko Miyazaki
as Kawai's mother
Minori Terada
Kanae Katsuno
as Mioko Torihama
Ryohei Abe
Tohru Emori
as 田端由蔵
Ken'ichi Endô
as Colonel Azuma
Masatô Ibu
as Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi
Satoru Matsuo
Tohru Emori
Dennis Falt
as American naval officer
Cleve Gray
as Bloodied Sailor
Ichiro Hashimoto
Renji Ishibashi
as Shojo Tsuruta
Hiroshi Katsuno
as Colonel Azuma
Keisaku Kimura
Keiko Kishi
as Torihama
Mikage
Haruku Ren
Suzunosuke Tanaka
as Shimizu (as Suzunosuke)
Yoshida Ayano
Takeo Nakahara
as Military police
Hiroyuki Nagato
as Oshima's grandfather
Koji Matoba
as Navy captain Yukio Seki
Takashi Inoue
Shinichiro Matsuura
as kamikaze pilot
Chieko Iinuma
Naoki Yukawa