(review copied from an email to a discussion list on the naval history of the period)
It's a decently produced DVD with the trailer (not subtitled) and a 'behind the scenes' feature (unwatched to date), but no scene selection. The subtitling is clear and easy to read. The translation is notably bad, with Russian names changing spelling from scene to scene (there is an apology for this at the end of the film).
Toshiro Mifune is mostly stoic (there aren't a lot of ebullient admirals) but shows flashes of personality and humor where called for. Most of the other actors are mediocre to bad. The Russians the previous commenter mentioned hate this film for a reason - nobody speaking Russian can act their way out of a wet paper bag. All of the actors portraying Russians may be speaking phonetically (he's too modest, the Russian staff officer actually does on of the better jobs on that side).
History is mostly followed, the opening night torpedo attack is replaced with a succession of sacrificial attempts to block the entrance to Port Arthur. This may have been for political reasons, which deserves a whole essay. In a nice touch, the efforts of Stockholm naval attaché to gather intelligence on the Baltic fleet are given some attention. The siege of Port Arthur is well portrayed - machines guns, shellfire and Japanese bodies carpeting the field.
I liked the model work and narration of the battles. The director used a narrator and track charts to explain the progress of both Yellow Sea and Tsushima, this worked very well and is a technique that should be widely copied. The narrator helpfully explains some of the telling points of the battle such as poor visibility from the smoky Russian guns. Gunnery training is emphasized in the movie as well, after all the Russians didn't do any and Togo sent his crews to training knowing the approximate week of the battle.
One striking scene shows fishermen from an island village standing by the water listening to the battle that they cannot see.
To compare with an American film, I'll take John Wayne's "In Harm's Way". This is a better movie, as mediocre as the script is (in translation anyway) it's still better than any of John Wayne's war movies. The jingoistic overtones are handled with much more subtlety, and the battles look a lot better and are more realistic. Instead of a romantic subplot, here we have an intrepid spy. Hands down, this is the better war movie.
Spoiler: The Russians get their asses handed to them on a satin pillow hemmed in gold. The Japanese beat their Pacific fleet, so the Russians sent their fleet from Europe halfway around the world and the Japanese sank that too.
It's a decently produced DVD with the trailer (not subtitled) and a 'behind the scenes' feature (unwatched to date), but no scene selection. The subtitling is clear and easy to read. The translation is notably bad, with Russian names changing spelling from scene to scene (there is an apology for this at the end of the film).
Toshiro Mifune is mostly stoic (there aren't a lot of ebullient admirals) but shows flashes of personality and humor where called for. Most of the other actors are mediocre to bad. The Russians the previous commenter mentioned hate this film for a reason - nobody speaking Russian can act their way out of a wet paper bag. All of the actors portraying Russians may be speaking phonetically (he's too modest, the Russian staff officer actually does on of the better jobs on that side).
History is mostly followed, the opening night torpedo attack is replaced with a succession of sacrificial attempts to block the entrance to Port Arthur. This may have been for political reasons, which deserves a whole essay. In a nice touch, the efforts of Stockholm naval attaché to gather intelligence on the Baltic fleet are given some attention. The siege of Port Arthur is well portrayed - machines guns, shellfire and Japanese bodies carpeting the field.
I liked the model work and narration of the battles. The director used a narrator and track charts to explain the progress of both Yellow Sea and Tsushima, this worked very well and is a technique that should be widely copied. The narrator helpfully explains some of the telling points of the battle such as poor visibility from the smoky Russian guns. Gunnery training is emphasized in the movie as well, after all the Russians didn't do any and Togo sent his crews to training knowing the approximate week of the battle.
One striking scene shows fishermen from an island village standing by the water listening to the battle that they cannot see.
To compare with an American film, I'll take John Wayne's "In Harm's Way". This is a better movie, as mediocre as the script is (in translation anyway) it's still better than any of John Wayne's war movies. The jingoistic overtones are handled with much more subtlety, and the battles look a lot better and are more realistic. Instead of a romantic subplot, here we have an intrepid spy. Hands down, this is the better war movie.
Spoiler: The Russians get their asses handed to them on a satin pillow hemmed in gold. The Japanese beat their Pacific fleet, so the Russians sent their fleet from Europe halfway around the world and the Japanese sank that too.