2006 ▫️Info

Nino’s hollywood debut!!!!!!!!!

I definitely watched this when it came out without even realizing that Nino was in it. I remember all the hype about this movie and Flags of Our Fathers at the time in the US. My dad is a big Western fan so I was pretty aware of Clint Eastwood stuff and that may have been why I watched it initially. I then watched it again sometime around 2010 after becoming an Arashi and Nino fan. Despite having seen it twice I didn’t remember much so it was basically like I hadn’t seen it before.

I think in general it was a very fresh and powerful approach that Eastwood took. There is so much romance and fanfare around war movies made in Hollywood. They of course sometimes show the more gruesome aspects, but I can’t think of many that give a human perspective of the “enemy” in the way that this film does. It sent a very strong anti-war message without having to say anything anti-war. Of course we are familiar with the suffering our own country’s soldiers go through, but often it is presented as heroic or as a necessary evil. I believe Eastwood’s intent with this pair of films was to depict how devastating these types of military actions are to everyone on any side of the carnage. I also appreciated that the fighting scenes weren’t “hollywood-ified”, there wasn’t any music or dramatic editing, it was just showing how stressful and violent it is to be living through a large scale attack like this. The focus wasn’t on the the excitement or drama of a battle, it was on the real conditions and experiences of individuals unfairly subjected to it.

Nino did amazing! He was actually in the film a lot more than I remember–I thought that it was mainly Ken Watanabe that led this film, but Nino is actually the main character. That was a nice surprise. The whole cast actually did great, though. I wonder what it was like for him to be so young and to depict this type of traumatizing role as a representative of his country, especially working with people in the US. From interviews it seems he felt it was an important story to tell so I hope he feels Hollywood did Japan and its people justice.

I don’t think it was really that great as a movie, though. Let me explain that a bit: it is well produced, well acted and has an important and interesting story. But I wouldn’t call it entertaining (and I don’t think it should be). I think of it more like a documentary that is made to teach us about history and human experience. I don’t mean this as a criticism, I gave it 4 stars because of how well it was made and how important I think it is culturally. Especially considering that Eastwood did something rather unique when making it. I just don’t think people should go into it expecting something exciting or interesting and I don’t think it needs to be that, either. Most importantly, though, I think it helped Nino get some long awaited recognition for his SKILLS.