Cast: Ken Watanabe & Kazunari Ninomiya
Director: Clint Eastwood
Rating:
Enetertainment Quotient: 20%
Genre: War/Drama
Runtime: 141 min
Language: Japanese
MPAA rating: R

Synopsis:
Iwo Jima is the island that protects Mainland Japan from the invasion by other countries. During the World War II, General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) is given orders by the king to protect Japan from the invasion of American. General is given an army of 21,000 people and adequate ammunition. They have to fight around 1,00,000 soldiers of America who have sophisticated weaponry. General knows that the entire fleet of Japanese Imperial Army present at Iwo Jima is going to be defeated. But he motivates his army to fight till their death and delay the process of Americans occupying Japan.

What is special about the film?
The story of the film is based on a true incident. The brilliant aspect that is shown in the film is to depict the enemy not as a ruthless monster, but as a human being just like us. This film also shows the human side of the soldiers. Some of them are reluctant to join army, but were forced by the king. The apprehensions and the family bonding of the soldiers are shown well. Ken Watanabe who did a remarkable job in films like Memoirs of Geisha and The Last Samurai is excellent in this film as the General Kuribayashi.

The scenes I liked

1. The dog killing episode in the flashback
2. The letter of captured American soldier’s mother which asks him to do the right thing.

Tailpiece:
If ‘Flags of Our Fathers’ was the American’s point of view of Iwo Jima invasion, ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ is the Japanese account of the same incident. And both these films were directed in a sequence by Clint Eastwood. This film was nominated for 4 Oscar awards and won an award for Sound Editing.