[Once A Villain]

He has directed the story of Iwo Jima told from both the American and Japanese sides. Two films which will release about two months apart. Flags of Our Fathers follows the men who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima. Red Sun, Black Sand (originally called Lamps Before the Wind) follows Japanese characters, including Ken Watanabe as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi. It's in Japanese (thank God) with subtitles and has Japanese actors playing the Japanese characters (thank God again...not another Memoirs of a Geisha). It's also written by a female Japanese screenwriter, Iris Yamashita. I recently saw this Japanese trailer that advertises both films in a single preview, looks very promising. What do you guys think?

Flags of Our Fathers & Red Sun, Black Sand trailer

[Henke]

Looks really interesting.

[SakSquash]

His daughter posing in playboy has me excited.

[lumi]

The trailer's music made me think of Pearl Harbor's overly sweet soundtrack, so that put me off. The rest didn't make me interested. It came off as too emotionally manipulative, but of course I've been pretty unpleased with trailers lately.

[Melanie68]

I think the trailer was very epic. I really like the idea of both viewpoints (is this the first time it's been done?), and I like the black and white.

I didn't feel emotionally manipulated. I think maybe because I didn't experience those events. Whereas any of the trailers for any of the 9/11 related movies have really turned me off because they felt manipulative to me. I just can't personally see a 9/11 movie or for that matter many movies that depict current events (I'm failing at this point to think of any examples). I'm just to close to them emotionally and that day has been rammed down the throats of Americans for almost the past 5 years (maybe less in the past year) but enough that I don't want to experience any more of it for a long time*.




* I don't know if those outside of America feel this or not.

[Once A Villain]

Originally Posted by Melanie68

I think the trailer was very epic. I really like the idea of both viewpoints (is this the first time it's been done?)

It was attempted in 1970 in Tora! Tora! Tora!, but that was about Pearl Harbor. Richard Fleischer directed the American portions of that film, and two Japanese filmmakers (including Kinji Fukasaku, director of Battle Royale) did the Japanese sequences. That film used Japanese actors, Japanese dialogue, and had subtitles for the Japanese portions...so it was ahead of its time in a sense. I don't think something like this has ever been done as two completely separate films though, and never about Iwo Jima.

Interesting side story, the legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa agreed to shoot the Japanese sequences for Tora! Tora! Tora!, but he understood that his counterpart for the American sequences would be David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Bridge on the River Kwai, etc.), someone that he saw as being "in his caliber". When it turned out that this wasn't the case, he intentionally became impossible to work with, and was either booted off the film or he left (no one knows which is really the truth).

Among his offenses, he actually insisted that entire shelves of books in one scene be replaced with books that were actually published prior to the historical date in which the scene was taking place, even though the names of the books themselves couldn't be seen. He did that stuff in Japan too. For his film Throne of Blood (an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth), he discovered that the set builders were using nails in the contruction and since there were no nails in the period the film was depicting, he insisted that the set be destroyed and rebuilt authentically (even though the nails couldn't be seen).

[Melanie68]

That's interesting.

And um, sorry about the 9/11 movie rant. They're personal feelings and don't have anything to do with this movie.

It makes me wonder if my uncle would have seen a movie like this. He died in 1995 and was in WWII. Even though he and my aunt had enough money to do so, he would never travel to Europe because of war memories. I wonder if a WWII movie would have done the same thing to him.

[Once A Villain]

Originally Posted by Melanie68

That's interesting.

And um, sorry about the 9/11 movie rant. They're personal feelings and don't have anything to do with this movie.

It makes me wonder if my uncle would have seen a movie like this. He died in 1995 and was in WWII. Even though he and my aunt had enough money to do so, he would never travel to Europe because of war memories. I wonder if a WWII movie would have done the same thing to him.

It's ok, I understand. I think you mentioned something to this effect back when I was talking about United 93.

[Kolzig]

I can't wait to see these movies.

[simpson_yellow]

I thought the trailer left a lot to be desired, but I'm definitely intrigued by the concept, and I usually like Eastwood's stuff so I'll be sticking this one these two on my calendar.

[Spiwak]

I've found Clint's recent movies to be a little overrated (referring to MDB and Mystic River), but this is an interesting concept. If done well this could be a big deal.

Originally Posted by Melanie68

I think the trailer was very epic. I really like the idea of both viewpoints (is this the first time it's been done?), and I like the black and white.

Pontecorvo's Battle of Algiers is another movie that did that sort of thing (way back in 1964). It strived for realism (including some frighteningly realistic terrorism) and more-or-less objectivity when regarding the French and Algerians, although it's theme seemed to be that the course of history proves that every country ruled by another will gain its independence. Anyway, it's kind of cool, because one of the Algerian leaders actually starred as himself. Oh, and everyone speaks the correct language. I highly recommend it (and the Criterion tits-edition, in particular)

[bulldog]

I'm not a big fan of Clint Eastwood's movies but this one might be ok. I might check it out.

[Melanie68]

Thanks OAV and Spiwak for the other examples.