is a 2013 Japanese

war drama In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

film directed by

Takashi Yamazaki is a Japanese visual effects artist, television producer, director, screenwriter, and actor. He won the Director of the Year and Screenplay of the Year awards at the Japan Academy Film Prize in 2006 for '' Always: Sunset on Third Street''. He ...

and based on a novel by

Naoki Hyakuta is a Japanese novelist and television producer. He is known for his right-wing political views and denying Japanese war crimes prior to and during World War II. He is particularly known for his 2006 novel ''The Eternal Zero'', which became a ...

, published in English by Vertical Inc. The film starts with a

frame story A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

set in 2004. A Japanese man in his twenties learns that he is the grandson of a

Kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

military aviator, who was killed in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He then investigates the life story of his grandfather, wanting to find out why a supposedly timid man volunteered for a

suicide mission A suicide mission is a task which is so dangerous for the people involved that they are not expected to survive. The term is sometimes extended to include suicide attacks such as kamikaze and suicide bombings, whose perpetrators actively commit s ...

. Most of the film depicts the grandfather's wartime service.

Plot

In 2004, twenty-six-year-old Kentaro Saeki is repeatedly failing the national bar examination and is uncertain about his future. One day, after the

funeral A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...

of his grandmother, Matsuno, he is startled to learn from his mother and older sister Keiko that his maternal grandfather Kenichiro was not his blood-relation. Keiko and Kentaro start hearing stories about their real grandfather, Kyuzo Miyabe and visit many of his former comrades, all of whom begin by criticizing his "timidity" in battle. During conversation with an old comrade of his grandfather, Izaki, who is in hospital dying of cancer, Kentaro finally learns the reason why Miyabe became a Kamikaze pilot. Izaki talks about his relationship with their grandfather to Keiko and Kentaro, claiming that only the "timid" Miyabe gave him the hope to save his own life after he was shot down over the ocean. The film begins with an unspecified attack near the end of the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

, a Zero fighter plane threatens the

United States Pacific Fleet The United States Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) is a theater-level component command of the United States Navy, located in the Pacific Ocean. It provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command. Fleet headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor� ...

by cutting through its defensive anti-aircraft fire. Kyuzo Miyabe, the pilot of the Zero fighter is regarded by his comrades as a coward, though an exceptionally skilled

fighter pilot A fighter pilot is a military aviator trained to engage in air-to-air combat, air-to-ground combat and sometimes electronic warfare while in the cockpit of a fighter aircraft. Fighter pilots undergo specialized training in aerial warfare and ...

, for consistently returning alive from missions, openly explaining "I don't want to die," the result of a promise made to his wife Matsuno and daughter Kiyoko: to return from the war alive. After the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

in 1941, the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

advances steadily, only to be steadily beaten hollow in the battles from

Battle of Midway The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under Adm ...

and Bombing on Rabaul onwards. Despite the rising desperation and hopelessness of their situation, all of Miyabe's men say they wish to die gloriously in battle. However, he persuades them, by his simple and honest example, that to survive is worthwhile. Miyabe accepts severe beatings by outraged senior officers several times for speaking these opinions, but refuses to retract them. Both Keiko and Kentaro still are puzzled as to why their grandfather - eventually - volunteers for a Kamikaze attack. Kentaro, now obsessed with finding the answer, spends much time researching the war. At a blind dinner date with several friends, he becomes incensed when one compares the Kamikaze pilots to

suicide bombers A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...

and storms off. He continues talking with Miyabe's most reticent and intimidating comrade in arms, now the head of a

Yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ...

group, and finds the man willing to explain his own story, which begins to explain this puzzle. He and his sister then learn the details and unfolding of the promise between Miyabe and their living grandfather Kenichiro before the final mission. Miyabe is said by his wife to have kept his promise, by ensuring that many worthy lives were not pointlessly lost and by providing his wife and child with Kenichiro, who becomes a loving husband and father. One summer day in 1945, Kyuzo Miyabe boards a Zero fighter, but then asks Kenichiro if he can "make a selfish request" and change planes with him. Kenichiro's plane develops engine trouble, and he has to return, leaving Miyabe alone to attack an . The film ends with a calm Miyabe about to crash into the ship.

Cast

Junichi Okada is an actor and a former member of Japanese boy band V6, which was under the management of Johnny & Associates. He joined Johnny & Associates at the age of 14. Music career In the summer of 1995, Okada participated in ''Johnny's Pre-School'' ...

as Kyuzo Miyabe *

Haruma Miura was a Japanese actor and singer. He made his acting debut in the television drama ''Agri'' (1997) and rose to popularity after starring in the film '' Koizora'' (2007), winning Newcomer of the Year at the 31st Japan Academy Prize. In the foll ...

as Kentaro Saeki *

Mao Inoue Mao Inoue (born January 9, 1987) is a Japanese actress. She debuted as an actress when she was five years old. She is best known to Japanese television drama audiences as in , as Makino Tsukushi in the popular ''Hana Yori Dango'' series, and ...

as Matsuno *

Kazue Fukiishi is a Japanese actress and former gravure idol. She won the award for best supporting actress at the 28th Yokohama Film Festival for '' What the Snow Brings'', ''Tegami'', and ''Memories of Tomorrow''. Career Fukiishi starred in Takuji Suzuki's ' ...

as Keiko Saeki *

Jun Fubuki is a Japanese actress. Career Jun Fubuki received a Japanese Academy Award Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in '' Muno no Hito'', and won at the Hochi Film Awards. This role also won Fubuki the "Best Actress" award at the Yokoh ...

as Kiyoko Saeki *

Isao Natsuyagi was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films from 1963 to 2013. Career In 1960, Natsuyagi began attending the Bungakuza actors school while attending Keio University. He eventually left Keio before graduating and entered the Ha ...

as Kenichiro Ōishi *

Shōta Sometani is a Japanese actor from Koto, Tokyo. He is known for his protagonist roles in ''Himizu'' and ''Parasyte''. Career Sometani was a child actor. He has worked in both film and television, gaining his first leading role in ''Pandora's Box'', ...

as young Kenichiro *

Isao Hashizume is a Japanese actor. He also worked as a narrator for documentaries, both on television and film. He trained as an actor at Bungakuza. 週刊現代6月5日号「私の地図」第485回 p84-86 Selected filmography Film Television Awards a ...

as Izaki *

Gaku Hamada is a Japanese film and television actor. He was a regular cast member of Fuji TV's '' Operation Love'', appearing in all 11 episodes broadcast in 2007 and the 2008 special, and receiving an award for his role. He has made numerous other TV appe ...

as young Izaki * Min Tanaka as Kageura *

Hirofumi Arai is a third-generation Zainichi Korean former actor. Career Arai made his screen debut in Isao Yukisada's '' Go'' in 2001 when he was 22 years old. His next film role was the emotionally disturbed senior high school student Aoki in Toshiaki Toy ...

as young Kageura *

Mikijirō Hira was a Japanese actor. Starting as a stage actor in the 1950s, he also worked in film and television and was active until the time of his death. From the 1970s he starred in several of Yukio Ninagawa's productions, including an acclaimed role as ...

as Hasegawa *

Tatsuya Ueda , is a Japanese idol, singer, and actor from the Japanese idol group KAT-TUN. Born in Kanagawa in Japan, he joined the Japanese talent agency, Johnny & Associates in 1998. In March 2006 he debuted as a member of the Japanese boy band KAT-TUN an ...

Yuya Endo is a Japanese actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Ryoma Echizen in ''The Prince of Tennis'' musical series (commonly known as ''Tenimyu''). He was also part of a young men's stage acting troupe, D-BOYS, which perform in various sk ...

* Rakuto Tochihara

Production

This film is based on a novel of the same name by

. However, director Yamazaki and scriptwriter Tamio Hayashi had to edit the original story and remove many of the novel's characters and scenes. Yamazaki said that the production team had "really struggled at the script stage, trying to extract the essence of the novel." Hyakuta himself did not express any objections to the final film script. Regarding casting, Yamazaki said that they had cast actors on "the basis of whether they were right for the role, not their popularity". He also said that the crew wanted "young actors who had something of the atmosphere of that time about them". Specifically, Yamazaki referred to Okada, saying that "He was extremely close to our image of Miyabe". He further elaborated by saying that "In the film the character knows martial arts, so Okada studied hard. He got so much into it that he became a

shihan is a Japanese term that is used in many Japanese martial arts as an honorific title for expert or senior instructors. It can be translated as "master instructor". The use of the term is specific to a school or organization, as is the process of ...

ualified teacher". He praised Okada as a guy "who's really thorough when he focuses on one thing." The film uses

computer-generated imagery Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images may ...

to replicate the scenes of bombing runs and

dogfight A dogfight, or dog fight, is an aerial battle between fighter aircraft conducted at close range. Dogfighting first occurred in Mexico in 1913, shortly after the invention of the airplane. Until at least 1992, it was a component in every majo ...

s, given the limitation of having a small number of

Zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation Positional notation (or place-value notation, or positional numeral system) usually denotes the extension to any base of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system (or ...

fighters being in a flyable condition having survived till the present day.

Reception

As of early January 2014, the film had grossed ¥3.21 billion (

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

30.8 million) at the Japanese box office. By January 19, it had grossed ¥5.17 billion (US$49.45 million). By the end of January, it had grossed ¥5.89 billion (US$57.3 million). The film had grossed ¥6.5 billion (US$64.1 million) about a month and a half after being released. It matched the last record for a Japanese

live action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...

film with seven successive weeks at number one with ''

Hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ...

'' (2007). With more than seven weeks in cinemas, it had grossed ¥6.98 billion. The film earned at the Japanese box office, becoming the 2nd highest-grossing Japanese film of 2013 in the country and the 3rd highest-grossing film of the year in the country. ''The Eternal Zero'' won the Golden Mulberry, the top audience award, at the 16th Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy. The film was released in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

on 12 September 2014.

Controversy

''The Eternal Zero'' has come under criticism for its nationalistic and sympathetic depiction of the

Kamikaze pilots , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to ...

. Director

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widel ...

in an interview accused the film of "trying to make a Zero fighter story based on a fictional war account that is a pack of lies". He added that this film was "just continuing a phony myth" and that he had "hated that sort of thing ever since was a kid."

Kazuyuki Izutsu is a Japanese film director, screenwriter and film critic. Career Born in Nara Prefecture, Izutsu started making 8mm films in high school, and directed his first 35mm movie film, 35mm film, a pink film, in 1975. He earned a citation from the Di ...

, the director of the 2005 film ''

Break Through! is a 2005 Japanese film directed by Kazuyuki Izutsu. Plot Romeo, A.K.A. Kosuke Matsuyama (Shun Shioya), is a second-year high school student. A nice, normal, nonviolent type, he suddenly finds himself in the middle of a rampaging crowd of Kor ...

'' said that the film had "no basis in fact". The film has also courted controversy amongst Japan's neighbors, especially China, with one Chinese commentator reportedly accusing the film of being "propaganda for terrorism". However, the film's director, Takashi Yamazaki, rejected these interpretations of the film, saying, "The film depicts the war as a complete tragedy, so how can you say it glorifies war?... I really don't get it." He eventually dismissed such criticism, saying that "In the end, people see what they want to see. If you think from the start that 'this movie glorifies war' you're going to see it as a movie that glorifies war, no matter what." Similarly, the author of the original book, Naoki Hyakuta, disagreed with this line of criticism, stating in a tweet that "In my book ''Eternal Zero'', I opposed suicide attacks with determination", "I have never ever viewed wars in a positive light", and the theme of the book was "not to allow our memories of war to fade away". The author also added in a tweet, "I feel sorry for ''Eternal Zero''. ..On one side of the political spectrum, Japanese right-wing

nationalists Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

claimed the book was plagiarized and were indignant about its criticism of high-ranking Japanese government officials, while on the opposite side, left-wingers criticized it as a glorification of war,

rebukes it for fabrication .. It is drawing fire literally from all directions." Yet the book and the film have been warmly received by its Japanese audiences: the film was one of the highest-grossing films of the year in Japan. Notably,

Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍晋三, Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), President of the Lib ...

, the Prime Minister of Japan at the time of the film's release, declared his support for this film and the book, saying that he had been "moved" by it.

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

also dedicated a special message to the brochure of the film, expressing her concurrence to the message of the film.

Other media

The film was issued on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

and BD in Japan on 23 July 2014.

Model Kits

Following the release of the film, Hasegawa Models released tie-in 1:72 and 1:48 scale models of the A6M2 and A6M5 Zeros featured in the film.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eternal Zero, The 2013 films 2013 war drama films Films directed by Takashi Yamazaki Films based on Japanese novels Toho films Japanese aviation films Japanese war drama films Pacific War films Films about Kamikaze Films set in 1941 Films set in 1942 Films set in 1943 Films set in 1944 Films set in 1945 Films set in 2004 2013 drama films Films scored by Naoki Satō Japanese World War II films Film controversies 2010s Japanese films 2010s Japanese-language films