Because I’m still under the weather and still in need of some cinematic comfort food in the form of old big budget war films, I decided to give this a rewatch. Now, I haven’t seen this in at least ten years, and my vague recollection of the thing was that it was mostly a little boring until the big battle scene at the end. As of this viewing, that’s likely an accurate if not especially generous assessment, but I’d argue that the movie is doing something interesting with the relative dryness of the buildup to the climactic event. What it’s giving you a sense of is the way the war machine operates on both the American and Japanese side, the slowness or speed with which the wheels can spin, and the difficulty in reversing course when the wheels spin so adamantly in one direction.
De-emphasizing the human element and downplaying the screen presences of the actors probably makes it harder to have any real emotional investment in the proceedings, but it does help give you a sense of the importance of information in military strategy, the way it can be collected, transmitted, misinterpreted or outright dismissed to disastrous results. I did find interesting the contrast with which the American and Japanese are depicted on a basic dramatic level. On the American side we mostly see the brass, more interested in dinner parties and golfing trips than in taking the impending threat seriously. On the Japanese side, we spend a decent amount of time with the pilots who will fly the mission, and see them bonding over a guessing game of the American ships they are supposed to destroy. If anyone in the movie has actual blood running through their veins, it’s them. If there’s a provocative idea in the movie, it’s that the Americans faced disaster at Pearl Harbor because they viewed it purely as a speculative exercise, while the Japanese viewed it as a matter of personal stakes.
Of course, the real reason to watch this is for its spectacular recreation of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I can’t find the exact quote at the moment, but Roger Ebert once observed that prior to CGI, every movie was essentially a documentary of its own making, and in this case, you are to some extent watching a large scale restaging of the attack. I say something like this pretty much every time I watch one of these old big budget epics, but you take all these planes swooping through the air and all these ships getting blown to smithereens and all these extras scurrying about, and the cumulative effect can be overwhelming. (The verisimilitude is enhanced somewhat morbidly by a number of close calls during production.) Compared to Michael Bay’s depiction of the event a few decades later, the presentation here is less giddy, but maybe not entirely, as we still follow a bomb dropped by a Japanese fighter all the way down. And it’s no less tightly assembled, giving shape to what must have felt like a chaos from the ground, even when it cuts to bursts of handheld when the action moves to the ships’ decks. And maybe the dryness of the earlier sections was an astute calculation in another respect, as it makes these scenes feel all the more visceral.
Given the current headlines, honestly this movie could have made today. A very different kind of Toho movie. Originally called Prophecies of Nostradamus. I stayed up late to watch it in 1987. I still have the VHS. Sorry, this movie has been on my mind a lot lately.
im bored so here's some of my favorite anime soundtracks + a favorite song from them
Parasyte: The Maxim OST – Ken Arai
Favorite track: I AM (not an easy choice tho, bc there's so many bangers on that soundtrack... except bliss and next to you, theyre overrated)
youtube
Hellsing OST – Yasushi Ishii
Favorite track: Gypsy of Atonement (also not an easy choice, put both these albums on shuffle and i can listen to it the whole days)
Shuffle your favorite playlist and post the first five songs that come up. Then copy/paste this ask to your favorite mutuals
Tagged by @girldante & @transaeneas, thanks <3
I went with my mystic music playlist (for the record, I also have a "sad music" playlist and a "happy music" playlist. Making playlists is not my calling)
Fude no umi - Toshio Masuda
The Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson
Electric Blue - The Cranberries
Alieno - La Rappresentante di Lista
Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics
Tagging @sevenmilliongoldfish @affogonellamarmellata & @gabriellovescandy, or whoever has a highly curated playlist to share.
This may actually be my longest playlist thanks to the fact that both Toshio Masuda & Yasuharu Takanashi have all their Naruto pieces on Spotify. Its 21h 22m total!
Dropping by to wish you a happy holiday season/merry christmas (and if you don't celebrate I hope you have a lovely week and can find something to make you smile)
P.s.) I watched the first few episodes of Mushi-Shi 👀 it has such a nice feeling to it.
Hellooo April!!!
I've been... alright XD A lot of things happened all at the same time, the most stressful one being a rescue cat that needed some hospitalization and care - but she's alright now, and well :3
PLLEAAAAASE have a very Happy Holiday and Merry Christmas (if you celebrate!) too, and I hope your vacation days are enjoyable :3
AHHHHHH MUSHISHI, YES, A MASTERPIECE!!! Absolutely watch it if you like it. Personally I find a very nice life lesson from each episode (that I've been wanting to post on tumblr since forever lmao) and I go back to rewatching the whole thing atleast once a year. Toshio Masuda's OST for the entire series (the actual OST, not the OP/ED) puts me to sleep VERY fast too. Let me know how you like it!