The Eternal Zero

Two siblings look into the grandfather who died in the war. All they know is that he flew Zeros and died on a kamikaze mission. As they find and talk to his old comrades a contradictory portrait emerges: some remember him as a coward, others as a man who made staying alive the most important thing. The subject is not the war but how a soldier who wanted to live is remembered. The film says he promised his family he would come back and avoided risk because of it, and builds his final flight as the abandoning of that promise. The form follows the known arrangement of the modern Japanese war film: heavily computer-generated aerial sequences, transitions from present to past and testimony from elderly witnesses. The flying is technically strong. It took very large box office in Japan and the novel behind it sold in the millions. It was argued over just as much. Hayao Miyazaki criticised the source text openly, saying it rested on fiction full of lies about the war and fabricated legends around the Zero fighter; the novelist answered back. The author's denial of Japanese war crimes widened the argument. Takashi Yamazaki directs. Junichi Okada plays the grandfather and Haruma Miura the grandson. Who it is for: viewers who like war drama and aerial combat. Who it is not for: anyone who will question the film's view of history; the objection is serious and the film barely questions the kamikaze system itself.