In 1943, as Japan's WWII effort falters, a vice-admiral proposes training squadrons of "volunteer" flyers to crash their armed planes into Allied warships. Yarn follows the lives of kamikaze pilots, as remembered by an aging Kyushu restaurateur who cherishes their memory. Honoring the dead and multiple military anthems may stir the soul of some Japanese, but elsewhere auds will make a one-way trip for exits. Battle scenes are well-executed and script delivers some memorable scenes, but overall competent helming and thesping are powerless over writer-cum-Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishiara's repetitive storytelling. A post-war postscript adds considerable length to an already over-extended narrative. Tech credits are good quality.
as Kapitän Nakanishi
as Leutnant Bando
as Leutnant Tabata
as Tome Torihama
as Reiko Torihama
as Kaneyama
as Soichi Kawai
as Staff Sergeant Kato
as Second lieutenant Abe
as Sergeant first class Matsumoto
as Staff sergeant Ishikura
as Araki
as Shigeo Oshima
as Ichieda Tsuruta
as Hisako Bando
as Ryoko Tabata
as Kawai's mother
as Mioko Torihama
as 田端由蔵
as Colonel Azuma
as Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi
as American naval officer
as Bloodied Sailor
as Shojo Tsuruta
as Colonel Azuma
as Torihama
as Shimizu (as Suzunosuke)
as Military police
as Oshima's grandfather
as Navy captain Yukio Seki
as kamikaze pilot
