Unbroken movie

[Treetopflyer]

Unbroken finally made into a movie

I just hope the movie does not stray from the book too much. The book is phenomenal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebHji2c_ciU&feature=kp

 

[DavidJones]

The Trailer looked as it my be interesting to see. Thanks for posting this.

 

[Horace Debussy Jones]

Trailer did look epic. Angelina Jolie is a talented actress as well as a director.

 

[EmergencyIan]

It looks good. It may end up being worth a trip to the movie theater.

- Ian

 

[Treetopflyer]

I've seen a couple differences in the preview from the book. They are small, I just hope they don't change too much.

 

[Brettafett]

Just saw this. What a film. One of the better WW2 movies to come out recently on all accounts.
A-2 jackets look really good also, as do the planes and flying sequences. Well done to all involved.

 

[Big J]

I don't think I'll be able to see that here.

 

[garzo]

Has the film been banned in Japan? I heard there was some criticism about the movie there. If the film is historically accurate, I don't understand what the problem is.

 

[Sloan1874]

Jack O'Connell's performance is the highlight of the film for me, how accurate does it his accent sound to American ears? The opening air battle scenes were excellent. This lot did the A-2s: http://www.smwholesaleusa.com/index.php?route=common/home

 

[zhz]

Has the film been banned in Japan? I heard there was some criticism about the movie there. If the film is historically accurate, I don't understand what the problem is.

Because the Japanese always deny this part of history.

 

[Big J]

Because the Japanese always deny this part of history.

Yeah, actually that's true. The extremely vocal Japanese right-wing have sent Jolie death threats, called for her to be banned from entering the country, and are demanding that theaters don't show it because it's 'full of lies' (so they claim). These crazies are a very small minority, but they do shoot and stab people, like the former Mayor of Nagasaki, who survived being shot with a shotgun. That and the fact that they are egged on by many high level politicians descended from war-criminals.

 

[Fanch]

I think that many Westerners have a lack of understanding of the Japanese Code of Bushido, and the mindset or perception of shame from being captured as a prisoner of war, which was the reason that so many Japanese soldiers committed suicide rather than be taken prisoner.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

Yet they are crazy about americana, vintage workwear and so on. Maybe part of the denial?

 

[Seb Lucas]

Yet they are crazy about americana, vintage workwear and so on. Maybe part of the denial?

Yep, both Japan and Germany became economic super powers after the war which may well have fostered a deep interest in retro Americana which both cultures seem to share in different forms. But in recent days the Japanese seem more enthusiastic for it.

 

[Big J]

I think that many Westerners have a lack of understanding of the Japanese Code of Bushido, and the mindset or perception of shame from being captured as a prisoner of war, which was the reason that so many Japanese soldiers committed suicide rather than be taken prisoner.

If I may...
I don't wish to be a pedant, but 'bushido' is fake. It all comes from a book written by Inazo Nitobe. He was born after the samurai class was eliminated by law in 1868/69 IIRC. In fact, he wrote the book whilst he was living in San Francisco in the early 1900's, where it was leapt upon by the English speaking world as some kind of deep insight into the Japanese, whilst the Japanese at the same time, leapt on it as an opportunity to instill (read 'brainwash') 'proper' non-western values into the average Japanese so that they wouldn't mind getting themselves killed to make rich Japanese industrialists richer.

 

[Don Tomaso]

If I may...
I don't wish to be a pedant, but 'bushido' is fake. It all comes from a book written by Inazo Nitobe. He was born after the samurai class was eliminated by law in 1868/69 IIRC. In fact, he wrote the book whilst he was living in San Francisco in the early 1900's, where it was leapt upon by the English speaking world as some kind of deep insight into the Japanese, whilst the Japanese at the same time, leapt on it as an opportunity to instill (read 'brainwash') 'proper' non-western values into the average Japanese so that they wouldn't mind getting themselves killed to make rich Japanese industrialists richer.

So it's the same story as with Yoga, which wasn't anything from India to begin with and nothing "old" and "traditional" as well but the invention of an Indian living in the US??

 

[Big J]

Yep, both Japan and Germany became economic super powers after the war which may well have fostered a deep interest in retro Americana which both cultures seem to share in different forms. But in recent days the Japanese seem more enthusiastic for it.

I've posted this before Seb, but I'll post it again. It's just my opinion, what do you think?

I think that in regards to Japanese obsession with US culture/vintage culture there are a number of factors at play here.

One that should not be over-looked is that it was a great era, after all, we don't call it the Golden Era for nothing! Here on this site, members have an active interest in the style, history, and culture of that era to some degree (and sometimes even all of the above!), but maybe for the vast majority of Americans, it's just something that they don't really think about very much, appreciate the significance of, and it's just something that is part 'of the background' of being an American (if at all). But I think that for US post war allies, the influence of US culture was maybe more massive than we appreciate (I'll come back to this, with regards to the Japanese below).

I think that for the Japanese, losing the war is the biggest cultural shock in living memory (maybe of all time). Lets not forget that wartime Japan was a fascist junta that told/brainwashed ordinary Japanese into believing a distorted version of bushido that prescribed that death was preferable to surrender, and that those who surrender deserve abuse and humiliation for not having the honor to die for the cause.

This ideology engendered as an essential requirement that ordinary Japanese must be prepared to die resisting US forces (never seen the picture of elementary school kids practicing with bamboo spears?) rather than surrendering, and that surrender would mean all sorts of abuse and degradation from the Americans (the Japanese army behaved pretty badly in China, and look at the way Allied POWs were treated- they were expecting to receive the same treatment from US forces).

But what actually happened? Well, whilst there are indeed accounts of misconduct by US occupation forces (every military has bad apples, right?), there was never an institutional system of abuse and degradation such as existed within the Japanese military in occupied lands. In fact, US forces generally treated the locals well during the occupation (I have a great occupation era US Army Japanese phrase book that reads like a beginners guide to tough guy Japanese).

During 1944/45 the air war on Japan burned this country to the ground, but more importantly, US submarines were sinking everything. The Japanese were eating belt leather, and the government was issuing advice on how to boil up saw-dust for human consumption. This was beyond dire. When the war finished, not only were the average Japanese not bullied, harassed, or victimized on the streets, but real food started flowing back into Japan. This kind of treatment must have been extremely jarring for the average Japanese given all the propaganda they had been subjected to.

Then, the Allies start stringing up the guys who not only put them through this misery and took away the lives of their sons/fathers/brothers, but change the constitution and give Japanese freedoms that they never had before (votes for women, for example, labor unions). For the average Japanese expecting to have become an American slave, this must have been a pleasant shock that caused them some deep reflection on the lies they had been told by their wartime leaders.

In this postwar ruin of a country, where everything had to be rebuilt from scratch (industry, schools, hospitals) for many years there was a strong backlash against a lot of Japanese culture since it was seen as part of the system that lied to them during the war. But, Hollywood was still functioning, and Japan was flooded with imported US movies, magazines, newsreels, and such during the occupation and beyond, and the Japanese lapped it up.

So, in a way, this Japanese interest in US culture is an outcome of Japanese society redefining itself in the aftermath of the total fail of it's fascist ideology, stems from a desire to understand who the invading Americans really are, and is a symbol of Japan's break with the past. It's a love letter to the US, in a way, and as dark and gray as any salaryman's life is, The American Dream means that he can be free at the weekend to ride his Harley, or sit outside a bar in his A-2 and smile at girls.

It's a testament to our humanity in occupation, and the extent to which Japanese society has turned it's back on imperial era ideology.

 

[Big J]

So it's the same story as with Yoga, which wasn't anything from India to begin with and nothing "old" and "traditional" as well but the invention of an Indian living in the US??

Yep, pretty much.

And all this 'bushido code says no surrender- surrender is a humiliation worse than death' stuff is absolute fantasy. Imperial Japanese Army troops fighting in China were never, ever, ordered to commit suicide rather than be captured/surrender. There were no 'banzai' charges in China. The whole death cult of bushido only was in force in theaters where the Japanese were facing off against US or British/Indian troops. The Japanese military governments plan as they were losing the war, was to make it so bloody for the US that they would be happy to end the war earlier and give Japan a conditional surrender (hence the photos you can find of Japanese elementary school children practicing fending off a US land invasion with bamboo spears). The US knew this, which is why so many purple hearts were made in preparation for invasion of Japan casualties, that they are still (still!) issuing that stockpile of purple hearts to troops wounded in the present.

To be honest, seen in the context, the A-bomb makes sense if you are a US general of the era- US servicemen's lives come before those of Japanese civilians, which the Japanese government is willing to sacrifice in a land invasion. As an aside, the US asked Japan to surrender unconditionally on the afternoon after bombing Hiroshima via the embassy in Switzerland. The Japanese refused to even give a receipt for the surrender request, so two days later, the US bombed Nagasaki. Even then, the Japanese army stormed the Imperial Palace to attempt a coup and prevent surrender. because they had been so effectively brainwashed by the anti-US death cult of the era.

 

[Big J]

Because the Japanese always deny this part of history.

Funnily enough, I was just reading in the newspaper today that the Tokyo Board of Education has approved the removal of references to Japanese war-crimes from high school history textbooks.

 

[handymike]

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it distracting that everyone in the movie is so good looking?