This was on TV one night after I checked into my hotel in Tokyo for a business trip. I started watching about half way through to the end. No subtitles, but it didn't really need any. The expressiveness of the actors' faces and voices gave you a good idea of what they were saying. The action and photography were first rate. Most of the scenes are below deck, but the scenes of the air attacks are well done.

I would compare it to "Das Boot" or "Stalingrad" as far as realism and getting an idea of how the crew actually felt given their circumstance. Not an apology or revisionist history, just lots of great action telling the story of a crew trying to save their ship.

Overall, this was superior to "Yamato", which came out 20 years later.

Now if I could only find a copy on DVD!

Having succeeded his late mentor Eiji Tsuburaya, Teruyoshi Nakano went on to create most of Japan's best special effects of the 1970's and early 80's. This would be his largest-budget, most lavish war film, following HILL 203 and THE BATTLE OF OKINAWA. This film re-teams him with director Shuei Matsubayashi, who Nakano had worked for earlier under Tsuburaya's leadership on STORM OVER THE PACIFIC, which this film is a loose sequel to. It also stars many of the same Toho performers, namely Jun Tazaki, Akihiko Hirata, Makoto Sato, and Koji Tsuruta as the Yamato Captain.

Although this film is ostensibly supposed to cover the trials and tribulations of the Battleship Yamato throughout the war, it really hits all the major highlights beginning with Pearl Harbor and ending with the Yamato's suicide mission in April of 1945. Unfortunately the film's first half relies heavily on stock footage taken from STORM OVER THE PACIFIC. It isn't until the section of the film depicting the Battle of Leyte Gulf that we really get some new quality battle scenes.

Two standout effects really elevate this film - the drawn-out destruction of the Zuikaku Aircraft Carrier mid-film (complete with an excellent scene where Tetsuro Tamba unsuccessfully sues to go down with his ship) and then at the end with the climactic destruction of the pride of Japan's navy, the super-battleship Yamato. All throughout however are good scenes such as Admiral Yamamoto's encounter with American fighter planes... and Makoto Sato is gravely wounded in a scene quite similar to what happened to his character in STORM OVER THE PACIFIC.

Overall, a fine, comprehensive, fast-moving, and well-acted war drama which is just as educational as it is entertaining. True to the spirit of Japanese war movies of the 60's and overall quite impressive from a pyrotechnic standpoint. Let's hope for a subtitled domestic release someday.