Letters from Iwo Jima

Rating: R
3.5 stars out of 5

---By Nancy Tu Translated by Sho Huang

Recently-released "Flags of Our Fathers", depicting the Iwo Jima battle during the Second World War, gives us the story from an American perspective while "Letters from Iwo Jima" tackles this legendary conflict from the Imperial Japanese Army's point of view, with an greater emphasis on the soldiers' feelings and softer sides. As the American forces greatly outnumber the Japanese, General Kuribayashi avoided the traditional Japanese style of fighting and adopted a tunnel strategy to effectively slow the Americans' attack. In the process, his leadership won tremendous respect from his countrymen and the Americans alike.

Although both "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima" are about the same battle, they were filmed and released at different times. Directing both movies, Clint Eastwood interprets the battle from America's and Japan's perspectives in a new approach for the film industry.

"Letters" might be a war/action film, but the cultural conflicts are also greatly highlighted. For example, although the Japanese general is against the war, he is put in a position where he has to fight, even as he despises the meaningless sacrifice, made in the name of the Japanese belief that it is the highest honor to die in battle. All in all, this film absolutely overthrows the evil stereotype of Japanese soldiers which has been promoted in Hollywood's films. At a certain level, this film has more or less done them some justice.

Although this remains a total Hollywood product, Japanese language and actors dominate the whole movie, to the point that it would be easy to mistake it as a Japanese film. However, the fast-paced, closely-linked scenes are an obvious contrast to typical Japanese styles of filming, which tend toward slowly built-up storylines. Nevertheless, "Letters from Iwo Jima" appears to be part of a new trend of telling Asian stories with Western film technology and style, with "Memoirs of a Geisha" being another perfect example.

For specific showing times, please refer to theatre notices.