Coluna Claquete – June 2nd, 2016 – Movies of the Week: “The Eternal Zero” and “Emperor”
Newton Ramalho
colunaclaquete@gmail.com – www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com – @colunaclaquete
Movies of the Week: “The Eternal Zero” and “Emperor”
The history of humanity is full of conflicts, many of them of catastrophic proportions, and, by the way, without much prospect of change. Trying to get a glimpse of what was one of the world greatest conflicts, World War II, I propose to the reader two films about the war and one of its most complex actors, Japan. The films are “The Eternal Zero” and “Emperor”.
Japan’s culture has always been complex and diverse from nearby countries, mainly due to self apartness imposed by their leaders, and that was only broken – by force of guns – by Europeans and Americans in the mid-19th century.
Up to that time the country was in a feudal system, with a highly stratified society, with an emperor worshiped as a living god, but where the real power remained in the hands of feudal lords.
The arrival of the Westerners obliged them to see how the country was technologically lagged behind the rest of the world, and then happened a sudden and traumatic change when a society that maintained the same habits for a thousand years was forced to adopt new habits and lifestyle.
This sudden change, combined with an increasing militarization, and a desire to expansion repressed for centuries, made Japan turn into a different country, belligerent and ambitious for new resources.This change was notably portrayed in the movie “The Last Samurai”.
The early 20th century was a period of affirmation of the power of war of the Japanese, who came to defeat the powerful Russia in a dispute over some islands. Over the decades, the Japanese invaded part of China, Korea and other Asian countries, and later became involved in World War II, partner to Germany and Italy.
The film “The Eternal Zero” takes a look under the stance of the Japanese soldier, especially the suicide pilots, who threw their planes on Allied ships. These aircraft, called Zero, were a highly advanced technological design at the time of its release, and with a group of experienced pilots was a set virtually unbeatable.
Nowadays, after grandmother’s death, two brothers, Kentaro (Haruma Miura) and Keiko (Kazue Fukiishi), discovered that the one they knew as grandfather was not their biological grandfather. Their real grandfather had died in World War II.
They decide to investigate more about it, but when interviewing former colleagues of their grandfather, only received negative comments, most of them saying he had been a selfish coward. Only a few of them assumed that Miyabe (Okada Jun’ichi) was one of the best pilots of the Japanese Navy, and clashed with colleagues because he desagrred with the obsession of dying for the country blindly.He believed that everyone should do their utmost to survive the war and return to their families.
A few friends were able to realize the greatness of Miyabe, and the sacrifices he made to protect peers and students in the war. These discoveries about his grandfather causes in Kentaro changes in his own life and his way of seeing the world. Some secrets are revealed, while others will rest forever in silence.
“The Eternal Zero” is a well-directed film with several scenes of aerial combat, and many flashbacks, but with a well-told story thanks to the script well built. The dialogues may seem strange to Westerners, because the Japanese language is very guttural, and it always seems that they are in a deadly game.
The second film in question is “Emperor”. The historical moment depicted in the movie is the period immediately after Japan’s surrender in World War II. This surrender, carried out after the explosion of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved thousands of lives, japanese and americans, that would have been lost if the conflict had continued.
After the surrender, Japan was occupied by US forces commanded by General Douglas MacArthur (Tommy Lee Jones), who assumed the post of supreme leader of the occupation. MacArthur had political ambitions and wanted to run for the presidency of the United States, using his image of war hero.
To satisfy voters eagers for vengeance, he had to point and send to trial the war criminals, as happened with the German top officials at Nuremberg.
Among all the names, one was the most dubious. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito (Takatarô Kataoka) was appointed by the Western press as the main responsible for atrocities committed by Japan before and during the war. On the other hand, arrest and possibly hang a man who was considered a god by the Japanese population would be enough to ignite the country with revolts of unimaginable extension.
MacArthur determines his general assistant Bonner Fellers (Matthew Fox) to investigate on the liability of Hirohito and their participation in decisions on war, especially the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Fellers always admired Japanese culture, and had done studies about the Nipponese soldier, long before the start of the conflict. He begins to interview top people from the Japanese government, seeking clues to justify the guilt or innocence of the emperor.
At the same time, he investigates the whereabouts of Aya Shimada (Eriko Hatsune), a Japanese teacher who met at university, and by whom he had fallen in loveThe two investigations seem to have no definition in the midst of a war-torn country.
Although being a western movie, the plot tries to show the ambiguous Emperor situation, a symbolic figure that was considered a deity by the population, and at the same time devoid of real power in an extremely complex culture where the individual is never more important than the collective.
Both films are interesting and historically rich, showing a different side of Japan that we are normally used to seeing on screen.