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STUDIO: Animeigo
MSRP: $29.98
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 199 Minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• nothing

The Pitch

"Discount rates on these planes are explosive."

The Humans

Actors Kinya Kitaoji, Bunta Sugawara, Koji Tsuruta, Tsunehiko Watase, Akira Kobayashi

Director Kosaku Yamashita

The Nutshell

"Vice Admiral Takajiro Ohnishi could see that Japan's defeat in WWII was inevitable. He came to realize that the only way to force a negotiated solution was to convince the Americans that invading Japan would cause massive casualties on both sides. The cold logic of suicide attacks, where one man and one plane could kill hundreds, seemed the only solution. In one of the cruel ironies of fate, Ohnishi actually succeeded; he convinced the Americans that invading Japan would be too costly in lives. But what he could not foresee was that America had another way of ending the war."

The Lowdown

Throughout history there has always been, one shape or form, desperate acts by leaders when they believe there is nothing else to do. Such is the case of the Japanese military during World War II. Ohnishi had a two fold plan - begin an unprecedented assault on American and British naval ships with suicide bombers which would ultimately strike so much fear into the hearts and minds of the military and citizens that the only choice they would have is to sit down with the Japanese and come to an agreement to end the war.

What Ohnishi did achieve was striking fear into the men on those battle ships (my Uncle was on the destroyer U.S.S. McCord and experienced first hand the suicide bombers assault) and he wasted hundreds of pilots lives, although it should be noted that most of those pilots were willing participants (call it getting caught up in the hype that their actions were honorable). Director Yamashita tells an intriguing story that centers mostly on Ohnishi by delving into a character who struggled with the only option he could come up with (the other option was surrender and at the time that was not even considered), loading planes with as much explosives as possible and sending his men do their final destination.


Yamashita does a good job at telling a straight forward story about this time in his country's history by looking at this time from different viewpoints shared by the military. Not everyone was on board the suicide bomber plan and yet in order to show solidarity they went along with many after the war declaring they had no other choice but to go along. I like Yamashia's style in presenting the story as he goes the route of filling the screen with a ton of information while military leaders are in meetings. Yamshia is just presenting the facts as they transpired which does not allow for any one character to set the tone of historic information.

Father of The Kamikaze moves at a good pace and even with a running time of three plus hours the film never seems to drag on.


The Package

No extras and that is a shame because some actual footage of the military leaders would have been a nice touch.

6.0 out of 10