Oh, that our leaders could be as good at making 'peace' as Eastwood is at making war movies! Oh, that we could perhaps just once, maybe, hopefully, learn one lesson from such movies! This film is Eastwood's part two of the Iwo Jima story (the first was Flags of our Fathers) and told from the Japanese point of view. It stars Ken Watanabe as General Kuribayashi, who is sent to Iwo Jima to defend it from American occupation. Course, we all know how this story ends. Yet in telling the story, in fact the other side of the story, we gain a new understanding of something elemental to our existence: we are all the same. We are all the same. And it is in that understanding that mercy dwells. Letters from Iwo Jima is an excellent film; a quiet film on many levels; a sad film. Kazunani Ninomiya (the Japanese pop star from the group Arashi), who plays Saigo, is outstanding and should have garnered an Oscar nod. While it could do with some further editing, this is the best movie of the five nominated for Best Picture this year.
My rating 8 out of 10.
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