[KineJapan] Thoughts on Revolver Lili on Pearl Harbor Day (spoiler included)

[Markus Nornes]

I caught Yukisada's new film, Revolver Lili. It's a noirish female assassin
film set the year after the 1923 earthquake and great fun. Very stylish.

https://revolver-lily.com

The plot pits the Navy's Yamamoto Isoroku against a nasty Army general.
Both are after a huge pot of money in Shanghai that only the assassin can
access—if she gets there before a deadline when the money goes poof. Said
money will decide which service dominates Japan.

If the Army gets all of it, it's an immediate war in China. If they split
it, Yamamoto says he can fend off war for a decade (before leading the
attack on Pearl Harbor exactly 82 years ago today, the real Yamamoto had
lived and travelled in America and was not into the idea of a war with the
US).

[spoiler starts here]

It's fabulous history, of course. But what really struck me was the ending.
The Army general is alone in his office talking to someone unknown on the
phone. He's reporting that he got his hands on the money and the other man
is quite pleased. Thing is, he's suddenly speaking in intensely formal
keigo, and the person on the other end of the line is not. One can only
imagine a single person the nasty general would grovel to: Hirohito. I
looked around at film reviews and no one mentions this, but such direct
pegging of the Showa emperor for war responsibility is incredibly rare. I
guess it was just ambiguous enough to slip through.

Has anyone else seen this? Am I misreading it?

Markus
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