Kimi wo Wasurenai

[Robert Stuhr]

Kimi wo Wasurenai (Fly Boys, Fly!) is an interesting film dealing with a
small group of young pilots attached to a Kamikaze squadron at Minoya Naval
Base on Kyushu in spring 1945. I couldn't find any information about this
film, not even in the IMDb. Does anybody know of a review or comment? Does
anyone have some information about the film or its director Takayoshi
Watanabe?

The film doesn't seem to be a typical war film, there are no action scenes
except one and the film ends when the aircraft start for their mission. 

I wonder how the japanese cinema has dealt with the impact of war on
soldiers and civilians. Of course there are famous films like "Fires in the
Plain" and "Burmese Harp", also films about the bomb like "Black Rain". But
are these films really representative? Would a film like, let's say "Tora,
Tora, Tora", be typical or would an anti-warfilm be? 

Kimi wo Wasurenai has impressed me with the total lack of action and its
concentration on the characters only. No heroes, no cliches, just young men
who happened to live in a time, when they couldn't choose but to be soldiers.

And I am especially interested, because the german cinema after 1945 didn't
have much to say about the two world wars, what war meant for our parents
and grandparents and how it changed their lives.



Robert Stuhr
stuhr at webtrek.de