Ok, I’m finally on the last movie of this queue. I didn’t watch Letters from Iwo Jima for awhile because it was in Japanese (so I had to read subtitles), and it was a long movie. Now that I’ve watched it, neither of them are real issues.
Letters, the companion movie to Flags of our Fathers is about the defense of Iwo Jima during World War II. The island is important because with the air base, the Americans can bomb Japan; so the Japanese had to defend it with all their might. Their problem is that at that point, they were already out of troops and equipment, and the Japanese depending Iwo Jima were out numbered 5:1.
One day, I was bored and read a lot of the history surrounding this event. What was surprising about Letters was that it didn’t convey a lot of the history. Instead the movie centered around a couple of characters, the general, and a private. Through them, the stories of the Japanese people are told with a slightly different spin due to the cultural differences.
Letters is a very good movie, but it’s not a five star movie. The problem I have with Letters is that it just covers the same issues as other war movies; loss, sacrifice, integrity. Perhaps it was because I read about the history already. Not five out of five, but four out of five.
Hi! and welcome to the eclectic personal blog of Kevin Quan. Come in, stay awhile, peek into the nooks & crannies, and learn a bit about me and my interests.