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Absolutely the worst movie.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

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 am almost through a great book on the history of Japan in WWII. The naval battles are fascinating to read about, and so when I saw this movie in the local Asian mall I picked it up.Yamato (the old name for Japan) has good and bad points. Starting with the good - I find the story fascinating, how the remainder of the Second fleet made a run for Okinawa on a mission that everyone knew was suicide due to lack of air support (Japan's air force had been finally crushed at Saipan). Some of the acting was great; I thought Uchida really stood out. As far as I can tell the film was very historically accurate. Some of the insights into "bushido" were interesting, especially the admiral's explanation of bushido vs. English chivalry. And some of the effects were pretty good too.On the bad side... the film had kind of a made-for-TV movie feel. As I said, some of the effects were good, others were far from great. The director shied away from showing the large sections of the ship, or the whole ship, maybe because of lack of budget - but I found myself really wanting to see those shots of this 65,000 ton superbattleship. It was obvious the whole film was made in a studio. They really should have invested in substantial steel tubes for the anti-aircraft guns, the fact that they jittered around like toys bothered me. Also in the silent dialog scenes, there should have been an omnipresent rumble of the ship's engines to add to the illusion that we are on the largest battleship in the world.It wasn't great, but I enjoyed it anyway, and anyone else who is interested in Japanese naval history I think will also enjoy it despite its shortcomings.

... 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!

I will write this review as a researcher of film culture(mainly, Russian, but not only). Apparently,this film is made as a "War Anniversary film". At the same time, it is made as a blockbuster,by which the company TOEI intended to redeem its status of Japanese Major film company(2500 million yen is not at all a normal budget for contemporary Japanese cinema.Kurosawa's "Ran" was made with almost the same budget 20 years ago,when the the situation of the industry was still better, as a co-production with France).In spite of such risky budget,TOEI didn't think of world sales at all. If compare with "Sun(Solntse)" by Alexander Sokurov,from the beginning international product and a "festival film", this risk seems incredible--10 times higher cost and gamble-like dependence on domestic consumption.We must keep in mind that such "War Anniversary films", even in Russia,where the government gives donation to filmmakers maximum to 70% of the budget,with intention of participation in world market and festivals, rarely can be "correct" from political point of view. I'm talking about "SVOI"(2004),which failed to participate in Canne and "Zvezda"(2002),which seems too pathetic and patriotic to be international. Japanese government never donate to any films more than 30% of the budget,which is rather cruel condition for non-Hollywood national films.So the task of director-writer Junya Sato, I think, was very, very difficult. He must have expected the reactions of all generations of Japanese nation,and make the film's "correctness" level as high as possible, not invoking any misunderstanding from any political organizations. And of course,as a veteran craftsman director,his film must have surely return the money to production company.As a results this film is a little eclectic;the story clearly tells the meaninglessness of the huge battleship strategy and meaningless death of many people, but some scenes are accompanied by heroic march,solders and officers seem at first naive militarists, after some time turn into absolutely sincere lovers, sons and brothers, who, in the end clearly know the nonsense of the last attack.The craftsmanship, with which Sato achieved expected results, is worthy of admiration. The idea of the film, and the conditions of its production, from the first didn't guarantee any well-made war film. He made his best, and we can see that the tension in directing is very high.