Isoroku Yamamoto, the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet (2011) User Reviews

A good politically neutral biography of Yamamoto, strongly recommended watch

[polokd · 8/10 · 2 January 2017]

For a home-grown Japanese war movie, Yamamoto Isoroku (2011) is perhaps the most neutral, and historically accurate of Japanese movies. For once, it actually contains few historical biases, and portrays both the social and historical impacts in the way the Japan turned to the decision to wage war.

Though subtle, the movie makes reference to the Boshin War, a civil war in Japan that greatly divided the big families into two main camps: pro-Shogun and pro-Emperor between 1868-1869. Yamamoto belonging to the Nagato clan, clear rivalries exist and continued into early WWII.

Civilian life, while fairly quickly glossed over, shows the impact and the growth of patriotic nationalism, and politically motivated newspapers that ride on the wave of popularity. It is only when the war begins to turn for the bad (post 1944) does the public begin to realize the impact of the war, and how bad it is going for them - the war in Manchuria being a far away war that many do not feel the impact.

If anything, the movie tries to steer away from the typical politically "expected", and while it is rather muted, aims to show the person whom Yamamoto was, rather than describe the war itself.

I think if you want a politically motivated movie of self- flagellation, there are other non-Japanese movies out there that will conform to pre-made opinions (such as a - but if you're looking for a biography in rather muted and neutral terms that simply show the perspective of how things were, then this movie is surprisingly very good, and well deserving a watch.

A different take on Tora Tora Tora

[GrantWilli · 7/10 · 14 January 2015]

In fact for one who grew up watching Tora Tora Tora and Midway this was an interesting take on the "other side" of the war. It opens and sets scene on a pre-war depression in Japan and the unstable political climate between the Army and Navy factions. It covers the build up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor until Yamamoto's death. As a depiction of Yamamoto it is kind in its portrayal, accurate or not I do not know. It appears at every turn that Yamamoto wishes to prevent war rather than extol it. The battle scenes are few, this is not the visual feast of the feature film Pearl Harbor.

I found the film interesting from a historical view, having visited Japan a couple of times I found the culture to be well captured and for the most part the historical events corroborate the earlier American movies mentioned earlier. I'm not a historian but it appears the overall gist is similar.

I think if you have an interest in the war in the pacific it is a film of interest but not an action film by any thinking. If you have no interest in the subject then the film will appear dry.

Slow Burning, But Worth The Watch!!

[Movie-Misfit · 6/10 · 27 January 2020]

Director Narushima aims high with this war biopic on famous Commander-in-chief, Yamamoto. While lengthy in its running time, its often slow-burning pace seems to add to that, although not particularly in a negative sense.

The Admiral is a pretty damn good film, and in terms of war movies based around Pearl harbour, is perhaps one of the more historically accurate, as well as neutral with very few biased views. Produced by Japanese movie studio legends, Toei - the film is pretty epic in story offering plenty of drama, with some nice CGI inspired dog-fights and naval action.

The story was created based on the long-lost diaries of Yamamoto himself, written between 1939 and 1941. Star Koji Yakusho (13 Assassins; Memoirs Of A Geisha) delivers a great performance as Yamamoto, with the rest of the cast impressing just as much. While not the kind of film I will be popping on again anytime soon, I was highly impressed with the overall production, and did find it to be an interesting watch.

It's certainly less cheesy than Michael Bay's 'Pearl Harbour' and definitely interesting to see such an event from the other side - and learning what caused Japan to take the steps it did in the war.

Overall: An impressive movie, The Admiral is worth the watch!

Good movie, bad history

[tom-26471 · 8/10 · 3 July 2017]

Well made, well acted, entertaining movie but certainly a bad rendition of actual history. Yamamato was much different in real life. He was a party guy and wanted fame and fortune very much unlike the actors portrayal. Also the movie portrays Midway in the manner of Fushido's book which has been proved to be a Lie.

Yamamato's Midway plan was just a bad plan. He split his forces sending two key carriers to the Aleutians, which was a meaningless target, and gave conflicting orders to his Admiral in command Nagumo. They just didn't have the forces to both support the attack on Midway AND hunt for USN CVs. In 1953 Fushido wrote a book that blamed bad luck and American code breakers for the loss but the fact is the plan stunk from the beginning.

Even if they took Midway, which is doubtful, they had no way of supporting an invasion of Hawaii, which was becoming stacked with US power. They simply didn't have the sea lift/convoy protection capacity for either one. So what was the point? The movie is very accurate portraying both the war fever that gripped Showa era Japan and victory fever that fueled the continued risk taking. It never touches Japans war crimes but its brilliant in portraying the public fervor for war. A very worthwhile movie to watch.

Somewhat Vapid Treatment of WWII Imperial Japanese

[egb-07676 · 5/10 · 11 May 2017]

A somewhat interesting film about the legendary World War II commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy. However, there was a lingering aftertaste of imperialist nostalgia and aspirations in the film. Big budget drama with lots of court intrigues & a bit of decent CGI of aerial battles between Zeros and Mustangs, Pearl Harbor, etc. Not poorly-made but presents a sanitized, sentimental depiction of Japanese naval brass -- their 'patriotism' and professionalism are depicted as far distinct from the ideological fanatics in I.J. Army. The film tries hard to seem anti-war with captains & officers reminiscing about eggplant rice-pot and sweet dumplings, dreaming of civilian life when they picked on smaller nations & weren't fighting the epic battles vs. the US. However, criticism of the war is somewhat restricted to the detached domestic pro-war mood, the "Bushido dishonor" of the Pearl Harbor ambush and the indiscreet alliance with Germany, no mention can be found of violence vs. civilian victims of Japanese imperialism in Asia. This is a huge sin of omission when honest students of history acknowledge an estimated 10+ million civilian lives claimed by IJA/IJN war crimes, including genocide, in pursuit of expansionist attempts to conquer the region. Lesson learned is that the Japanese fought gloriously for their nation even when this demanded loyalty to the militarist cause. This seems insidious as modern Japan under Nippon Kaigi nationalist leadership shifts toward revanchism and historical revisionism while the executive considers making the maintenance of an air force, navy, and standing army "constitutional" through the junking of Constitution Article 9.

The best movie yet made on Pearl Harbor and Midway battles

[Cinephilos · 9/10 · 27 September 2022]

I have seen several movies made on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the ensuing Battle of Midway between the U. S. Navy and the Japanese Navy. Most of these movies emphasized the U. S. perspective on the battles. Some, like the movie Pearl Harbor, depicted the Japanese as sinister monsters molesting the virgin daughter of Pearl Harbor on a peaceful Sunday morning. None of the movies, as far as I know, dealt with the political and strategic considerations that went into Japan's decision to attack the American Navy. None depicted the deep anxiety that was present on the minds of the Japanese Navy brass who knew that they could not win a protracted war with the U. S. and that the only chance Japan had was that the U. S. public opinion would turn against a war with Japan and bring the Americans to a negotiated peace with Japan. The human side of Yamamoto was well represented in this movie. He was a rational, reasonable naval officer who had good understanding of the world affairs and was also a good gambler who, if he had not become a military officer, could have made a fortune from poker. Also Yamamoto was a famous Samurai's son who held on to his sword even at the last moment of his life.

The social atmosphere of Japan surrounding Japan's entry into the Pacific War was also well described. Their continued successes with wars with Russia and China gave them the feeling of invincibility. Old businessmen hoped that a new war would bring the economy out of recession. Mothers feared that their sons would not return alive from the new war. Journalists went along with the bellicose policy-makers by boosting the national morale. Yamamoto is depicted as the only man who maintained the sense of proportion in the midst of it all.

The battle scenes were largely made of computer graphics, unlike Tora, Tora, Tora or Midway (there were no computer graphics when those movies were made). Unlike the newer version of Midway, the movie Yamamoto doesn't dwell much on battle scenes. Instead it focuses on the psychology of the navy generals and pilots. People who watch this movie will not be looking for spectacular battle scenes. After all, the Japanese lost the Pacific War. There is no reason for them to glorify the battles that they lost.

The most memorable scenes in the movie are when Yamamoto interrupts the heated discussions of his navy staff by mentioning the taste of fish and when he keeps on playing chess with his lieutenant while bad battle reports keep coming in. These scenes show how controlled and disciplined a man Yamamoto was even though he was in the center of one of the most crucial battles of WWII.

The movement of heaven is full of power

[ownself-co · 5/10 · 16 February 2014]

For different with other war-reflection films, this one looks like reflecting, but actually is full of regret of defeat and not reconciled. As you can see, all the characters in the movie are fighting for the glory of empire, but I guess it would be called as glory if you are fighting for protecting your homeland, not invading others for gaining resources and profits, if that can be called as glory, the whole civilization is selfishness.

The tragedy of Japan is not about defeat, is about the whole country was involved into a crazy military fascism, all the people were jumping into the war torrent. Yamamoto is not a total anti-war commander, he's just against having war with USA, because he known USA well, and he concerned about opening war with USA will make all the advantages which Japan gained in Asia gone like illusion. So the movie model him like Nobel Peace Prize winner is quite funny.

I can understand Japanese still have sense of honor for their army, but actually in pacific war, against USA's powerful steel flood they only can show their crazy brave but nothing else. At the end of movie, when the radio sold the schedule of inspect out, actually after US Navy be aware that, General Nimitz quite hesitate if they should kill Yamamoto, because he thought Yamamoto is stupid enough what if Japan send a better guy after him.....

As a feature film, this one is quite boring; As a biographical film, this one makes Yamamoto a guy who is not an expert of naval battle, a famous gambler in WWII to be a very kind old grandpa-pa, a fan of chess, it's rather hard to swallow; As a anti-war film, this one reveals "The empire will still be honor if we don't open war with USA, then we can still occupy the Asia" more than anti-war, this is what threaten me.

USA tolerate Japan after WWII, because Japanese and even the emperor of Japan were totally kneel down like a watchdog, and America kept their emperor. All the Japanese fought WWII for their emperor, so "if the emperor has no guilty then we don't either", that's the reason Japan didn't reflect WWII like Germany, they only regret opening war with USA but not invading the other Asia countries.

USA hurts Japan, Japan kneel down, but to other Asians from the same ancient culture, Japanese got full of blood on their hands however, maybe for a nation like Japan, you have to be powerful like you can crash them, then they will bend for you, with a such neighborhood like this, we have to learn -- "The movement of heaven is full of power"!