The first part of a grand nine-hour epic dealing with Japan's role and behavior in the war. Enormously popular in the country at the time of release...it acted as a purgative for conflicted feelings of the defeated people and their immense suffering.
As a film it was truly epic...large-scale in locations, extras, etc. Excellent cinematography. But to my eye everything about the characters/situations was overstated, overegged. Many Asian films from this era suffer from this flaw...in this case it ruined the experience for me. Odd that a culture so restrained in most matters goes so overboard in its films.
I expected more from the director of the magnificent Hara Kiri.
n/r
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