There are two things about this movie that make it more than a little absurd. Of course US movies tell the US perspective, and Japanese movies will tend to tell theirs. But Japan does not even teach what happened in World War II, no one growing up after the war has ever been taught what they did to the subjects under their rule, or that they started hostilities. This is why China and Korea to this day maintain a cold peace with Japan. They have not forgotten.So this movie once again skips over anything -- Japanese perspective or not -- about the war, and focuses on the only thing Japan has ever focused on since -- their own suffering.The other thing is that the fight scenes make it look like they are at least making the US pay a heavy price. This is typical Japanese face- saving. If you are going to make a movie about these dead heroes to the state, you have to at least make it look like they died being somewhat competent. In fact, the count for the day was something like 10 US planes downed, and 14 pilots wounded. Considering that 4000 Japanese sailors died, this was an incredibly lopsided fight. So in other words, the battle must have looked very, very different than this movie.I understand that a Japanese director probably cannot make a movie in which Japanese sailors are dying by the thousands -- and ARE NOT EVEN ABLE to inflict much damage in return. But that isn't US propaganda -- that is what happened. Surely at this point, it's time for someone to tell the young people of Japan something closer to the truth? Yes, Japan paid for its mistake, but it was not an innocent victim.In 2001 I taught for six weeks in Japan, 2 weeks before, then later 4 weeks after 9/11. My students incredulously asked me in amazement "who would think of using an airplane as a suicide weapon and killing themselves and lots of other people?" They had not even HEARD of kamikazes! I did not have the heart to enlighten them, so I restrained my natural response "Your people invented this!"Modern pacifist Japan is rooted in ignorance, and this movie contributes nothing to understanding. This is the telling of a war that happened in another dimension, not here. This is a tale from a Japan that still cannot own up to its own history.

I saw this English subtitles on youtube. I have read the commentating about the non propogandic value. My own family history Latvian side has some of most brutal irony a nephew served in the uniform of the nation that had his own uncle as an inmate. That young man was old and his youngest brother yet to be born in WWII competed the last USA V USSR before the wall fell in flying competition. There were some elements the need to honor the dead. My grandmothers ashes were spread at Visby.I do have the following beefs nothing about what Japan did in China explained its all glossed over. The irony that even the Battlefield documentary series pointed out the surrendering wounded Japanese pulling the pin on hand gernades at Gaudacanal. Is not mentioned. The actions of Japan forced the bombing they scared the (exp deleted) out of.Hard to do real action full size without plans. It did also omit the fact the crew heard radio transmissions of kamikazes making final dives.Interesting piece on the Japanese mindset about WWII kind of schizophrenic about what it did. As Tejano I have com to terms with the darker sides of my Latino heritage as well. Latvian/Latino (I am a product of the US Army)

I live in Hiroshima and I have a colleague whose lost his father on the Yamato when he was 13 years old. My nephew is staying with me and today we visited Kure, where the Yamato was built, and the Yamato Museum. Actually, my colleague still cannot bring himself to visit the museum or even watch this movie, though it was made sixty years after the sinking.Actually, the movie opens in the same museum, where there is a 1/10 scale model of the battleship, and loads of information/memorabilia. There is very little English in the explanations and I suspect that foreigners are not really expected to visit the museum, given the contents.After returning home from visiting the museum we watched the movie. It was just as moving as it was when I first saw it. It has a local feel, which I can appreciate, since I have lived here for nearly 30 years. The Yamato was built in Kure and it would be interesting to see how many local actually people served on the battleship (I have no idea, but records probably exist).Of course, the clichés are all there, as is the unique way of Japanese acting. I used this movie in one of my classes and had students compare it with Pearl Harbor and Troy. Pearl Harbor did not receive much praise, but students were challenged to compare the human elements in Otokotachi no Yamato and Troy.

... but dumuel's critic i could use to comment mostly of the war movies form USA... The movie try to touch the conscience of the Japanese, make them remember what their fathers and grandfathers has to do... war is not a "good guy vs bad guy" thing... both have villains and heroes....... i'm agree, the FX's are not so good than a Hollywood movie, but is a very strong story... normal people confronting the horror of war, their feelings about the honor, patriotism, and different ways to facing death; there's no silly's love stories, or super pilots fighting alone the Americans, politic is out, the human beings are the protagonist of the movie... like some said "pearl harbor sucks", and "Yamato" is excellent!