I would put this in one of my top favorite films. It's as good as "Letters from Iwo Jima"Was the lives worth it for the future of Japan? It's kind of like "The Notebook" meets "Pearl Harbor". (well, better than those two films!) If you had to choose love between your own family and country/men; many had to face the same dilemma. People can have different perspective whether one is a coward or a real hero. I'm not sure how I missed this film when it first came out, but I recently watched it and I was engaged throughout the whole film.The director Takashi Yamazaki also makes really large scale Hollywood-like production quality. There's many war films out there, but this one is actually refreshing and meaningful. It really hits hard on the impact and value of life - how precious it really is.I really liked how it brought up the controversy/showed and compared how people/kids of modern Japan also judged the way they saw the kamikaze pilots who fought for them. Some people argue they were just crazy brainwashed terrorists, but not everything is just simply black and white. The film stars Juichi Okada, a famous former Japenese boy band group member called V6, who plays the main pilot. I was surprised he could act so well, as he was amazing in the film. I liked how the film had that small subtle connection/twist of the old man with the security cameras in his home/samurai sword; you'd only get it if you were paying attention. I highly recommend this film. It's definitely one of the quality war films made.

The perspective of this movie can change by different people. For a Japan it is a story of hero, but for an American it is a propaganda movie. I think it is a nice Japan propaganda movie. This movie is showing us even today's Japan Kamikaze pilots and soldiers which fight in WW2 are excluded, because for some young Japans Kamikaze pilots are ultra-nationalist psychopaths and there is no difference between suicide bombers and Kamikaze pilots. But this movie is arguing every Kamikaze pilot is not ultra-nationalist psychopaths, there are some dramatic stories of Kamikaze pilots. Miyabe sacrificed himself, because he became very sad on death of young Kamikaze pilots and he wanted to cover a young soldier, in this way he died as a hero, but no one knows it. So it is a nice movie for showed us this story, because there are some real untold stories like in this movie. Also I liked structure of movie that deeply examine of characters and present different kind of perspective. So I think this movie is a successful movie. But I have some unanswered questions and I found some deficiencies about movie. For example, why soldiers called Miyabe as coward? I think scriptwriter wanted to show he decided to die, because death is an escape hatch, and he could not face with sadness of war and he decided to suicide, so they could called him as a coward. Also Why Miyabe saddened too much about death of kamikaze pilots? I think he knows kamikaze pilots be kamikaze pilots for death. Also movie stayed on only character level, I think it should have more entered into war and also should have showed real face of Imperial Japan. For example why they attacked Pearl Harbour, if I did not know about what happened in pearl harbour and why Japan attacked the US, I could not understand why they are fighting each other. So if they were entered more into war, movie would be better. I was expecting to see more war scenes. Although they dramatic story and atmosphere of movie have covered these deficiencies. Also movie continued too long, if it has been ended after Kentero's and his sister's learned the truth, it could be more effective.

Despite being one of the better films hiding among the titles on Netflix, 'The Eternal Zero' doesn't seem to have attracted much attention in the west. Given that it's a film that casts a sympathetic look at Japan's kamikaze pilots though that's not exactly surprising. It's already been subject to a wealth of controversy by critics in Japan and abroad, especially as there's one pivotal scene that compares them (favourably) to modern day suicide bombers. This is a shame because at it's heart, 'The Eternal Zero' is a defiantly anti-war movie and a genuinely moving one. Beginning at a funeral, it focuses on siblings Kentaro and Keiko Oishi and their quest to find out more about the Grandfather they never knew. They soon discover that their relative Kyuzo Miyabe was a fighter pilot that died in a kamikaze attack on an aircraft carrier but throughout the war, he was almost universally hated by his fellow pilots. They meet with several veterans who all accuse Miyabe of cowardice for avoiding combat at any cost and after being shouted at by several angry old men, are understandably keen to throw in the towel. Then they decide to go for one last interview and things start to get more complex.From there, the film unfolds Citizen Kane-style through interviews and flashbacks. It turns out Oishi was in truth a brilliant pilot, but one who also desperately wanted to live and return home to his wife. This made him thoroughly unpopular in a culture which at the time venerated the honourable sacrifice, but it also makes him something of a cypher character. Nobody in their right mind would want to smash themselves into a warship in a burning jet plane after all, so how does someone come to be persuaded to do that? And could it happen to any of us or was it something that only Imperial Japan could convince it's people to do?What follows is a moving story of courage disguised as cowardice and a man who firmly believed in life at all cost rather than pointless deaths. There's a few brilliant scenes where characters juggle certain death against uncertain life, not least where Oishi convinces a fellow pilot not to turn back for a suicide run, only to wind up suffering an even worse fate because of it. On a technical level too the film does a great job in recreating aerial combat through CGI (a practical necessity given the lack of functioning Zeros nowadays). The focus isn't on the combat though and anyone expecting constant dogfights will be disappointed. The Battle of Midway scene for example ends all too soon and often, we see the aftermath of battle rather than the battle itself. It makes up for it though in the human drama and when Oishi finds himself flying escort to his own students and has to watch them squander their lives pointlessly, it's both visually impressive and moving.Anyone who still harbours resentment for the Japanese and their actions during WW2 however will still hate this movie. There's no mention of the atrocities of Nanking or the mistreatment of POWs for example, but then they're not the focus of the film. This is about impressionable young men being brainwashed into throwing their lives away and their ancestors struggling to come to terms with it. In that sense, Kentaro and Keiko are representative of modern Japan itself; they don't have to approve of their own history in order to sympathise with it. This is a great film, but it'll provoke a heated argument or two, a fact which it foreshadows in a night out that goes disastrously wrong.

The Eternal Zero, just had it all, it is masterfully executed. The visual effects during the combat scenes are pretty spectacular. It's deeply touching story and amazing acting.It's about time we see things from the Japanese perspective when it comes to the WW2. I'm tired of all the americanfied WW2 movies. Nothing beat the Japanese film making when it comes to dramas they make, they are simply the best at it. This movie is no exceptions and will leave you the viewer with heavy emotions and a lasting impression. It is simply Japanese film making at it's best.I can highly recommend this movie, to anyone that is interested in Japanese drama. Specific to war movies buffs that want to see how it was on the other side.