LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA — **** — Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara; in Japanese, with English subtitles; rated R (violence, gore, profanity, vulgarity, brief drugs).
Perspective is the one, real difference between director Clint Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima" and its companion piece, "Flags of Our Fathers." But it turns out to be a pretty big difference.
Where "Flags" tried too hard to be earnest and beat the audiences over the head to offer a message, "Letters" has a subtler and lovelier, almost poetic tone. In a way, it's more akin to Eastwood's "jazzier" films, such as "Bird" (1988) and "Million Dollar Baby" (2004), and less like the blustery "Mystic River" (2003).
In fact, there are times when you're hard-pressed to recognize it as an Eastwood movie. It actually resembles work by the late Akira Kurosawa, whose work Eastwood admires.
Like "Flags," this war drama re-creates the 1945 battle for Iwo Jima, a strategic area in the U.S. Armed Forces' battle against the Imperial Japanese Army. But "Letters" is shown almost entirely from the viewpoint of Japanese soldiers.
Ken Watanabe ("The Last Samurai," "Batman Begins") stars as Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who's been assigned as the new commander at the Japanese Iwo Jima base. He has just weeks to prepare a united front to oppose the invading U.S. Army.
Kuribayashi faces opposition from his fellow officers because they consider him and his methods to be too "Western" (since he studied abroad). They also believe their best defense is to guard the beachfront, which he rejects as an option.
The film also focuses on the character of Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a baker pressed into service as a soldier. His series of rather candid letters to his wife are the basis for the film's title.
Screenwriter Iris Yamashita took inspiration from the book "Picture Letters From Commander in Chief," which featured letters written by the real-life Kuribayashi, and her dialogue has a ring of truth.
Consequently, this is heady, powerful stuff — even if the modern-day, wraparound sequences do seem a little familiar. ("Saving Private Ryan," anyone?)
The film also benefits from another forceful performance given by Watanabe. Japanese television star Ninomiya is terrific as well, as is Tsuyoshi Ihara, who plays an Olympic athlete serving his country's cause.
"Letters From Iwo Jima" is rated R for strong scenes of wartime violence (shootings, stabbings, explosive mayhem and acts of ritual suicide), graphic gore, scattered profanity and crude references, and some brief drug content (use of pharmaceuticals and painkillers). Running time: 141 minutes.
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