Tokyo governor Ishihara disses Eastwood’s war film
Posted on Saturday, 3 March 2007 at 12:56 pm
Everybody’s favourite nationalistic demagogue, Tokyo governor Ishihara Shintaro, has voiced his disdain for Clint Eastwood’s WWII film “Letters from Iwo Jima”. Speaking at a party on March 2nd celebrating the completion of kamikaze drama “I Go to Die for You” (Ore wa, Kimi no Tame ni koso Shini ni iku), for which he wrote the screenplay and acted as executive producer, Ishihara praised his own film as “well made” and compared it favorably to Eastwood’s Oscar-nominated work. “I went to see it thinking it’d be a rival [for "I Go to Die for You"], but [our film] is far better. There was no sense of the American forces’ frustration, and I couldn’t tell where they were fighting on the island”.
Eastwood actually visited Ishihara back in April of 2005 to seek his support for the production, and it was the governor’s intervention that helped facilitate location shooting on Iwo Jima.
Ishihara also moved to pre-empt criticism of his film’s motives. “It’s not a glorification of the kamikaze, it’s an ensemble youth drama with an antiwar message. There are those foreigners who confuse the kamikaze with suicide bombers, but I want them to know that they are completely different.”
The movie is based on Ishihara’s conversations with the late Torihama Tome, a canteen operator in Chiran, Kagoshima who looked after kamikaze pilots before they took off on their one-way missions.
Also present at the party was Kubozuka Yosuke, one of the film’s leads, who reflected on surviving a nine-storey fall from his apartment balcony in June of 2004. “When I think I could have died that day, everything from then on is a gift from god. The last two or three years have made me realise how fortunate I am to have been born. I live to live. I’ve gone back to basics, and I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.”
“I Go to Die for You”, directed by Shinjo Taku and also starring Tokushige Satoshi, Tsutsui Michitaka and Kishi Keiko, opens on May 12th. You can see trailers for the film here and here. (sources: Sports Hochi, Nikkan Sports)
comment by ed
posted on Saturday, March 3 2007 at 12:56 pm
thanks to jason gray’s link, i finally caught up with this. gosh, is kubozuka a right-winger too? never thought he’d take on something like this…or he must need the job badly!
comment by don
posted on Saturday, March 3 2007 at 12:56 pm
Can’t say for sure of course, but I wouldn’t take his participation as a sign of any right-leaning tendencies. Kubozuka’s career was already showing signs of impending freefall due to his general weirdness before he took that infamous swan dive off his balcony and he’s no longer the rising star he was after “Go”, so I imagine it’d be difficult for him to pass up a lead role like this. Still, I don’t see this doing the same kind of business as “Yamato” and I doubt it’ll do much for his career rehabilitation, especially with his younger brother Shunsuke in much greater demand.
pingback by ryuganji: film news from japan » Kubozuka slams Izutsu as films do battle over war ideology
posted on Saturday, March 3 2007 at 12:56 pm
[...] that his soon-to-be-released kamikaze drama “I Go To Die For You” (previously covered here) glorifies the values of wartime [...]
pingback by Japan News for March 04, 2007 » Japan Probe
posted on Saturday, March 3 2007 at 12:56 pm
[...] Tokyo governor Ishihara Shintaro, has voiced his disdain for Clint Eastwood’s WWII film “Letters from Iwo Jima”. “I went to see it thinking it’d be a rival [for “I Go to Die for You”], but [our film] is far better. There was no sense of the American forces’ frustration, and I couldn’t tell where they were fighting on the island”. [Link] [...]