Ki no Ue no Guntai (2025)

Beautiful and Difficult

This film was inspired by events surrounding the Battle of Okinawa towards the end of World War II, and focuses on the experiences of two Japanese soldiers — one, a regular officer, and the other a very raw recruit, local to the island on which the film is set. After their island has been taken over by American forces they hide in a giant Banyan tree, waiting for reinforcements to arrive, not realizing the war has ended. The film explores their relationship and how they navigate the considerable differences in their social standing, life experiences, and expectations. Both actors do a great job. Shinichi Tsutsumi plays the older, embittered, officer and Yuki Yamaha the young recruit. I found Yamada’s character the most poignant — he saw so many of his friends killed. The film is largely structured in terms of the relationship between the two men who are forced into close confinement. An almost fatherly bond forms between the older officer and the new recruit. It raises larger questions of how difficult it is to navigate profound loss — not only personal loss, but loss of an identity that structured a person’s day to day life in Imperial Japan when old answers to questions about how to be a loyal citizen and a good person don’t seem to reflect reality anymore.

The film has a strong anti-war message. I thought this was a very good film. I watched it right after having seen the Chinese film Dongji Island, about Japanese atrocities which also took place partly on an island. It was an interesting combination.

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