Eien no Zero is a story about a Kamikaze Tokkou pilot in the WWII. He was a skilled pilot who didn't want to die. In the present day, his grandson and granddaughter got to know for the first time that he died as a Tokkou pilot 60 years ago. They want to know more about him, so they go and meet his navy buddies. Some say he was the biggest coward in the navy, others say he was a great person and they were willing to die for him. He was a good instructor who felt pain teaching young men how to fly for a suicide mission and seeing them off on a one-way flight.
Although he never met or talked with his wife before the wedding and he and his wife lived together for only a week, he loved her dearly and promised to come back to see her and their daughter for sure. His grandson and granddaughter try to find out why he "chose" to be on a Tokkou mission. Through their investigation, they get to know more about their grandfather and things that their grandmother never told them.
Eien no Zero, the novel was written by Hyakuta Naoki and published in 2006. It was made into a movie starring Okada Jun'ichi, Miura Haruma, Inoue Mao in 2014. TV Tokyo made the story into a 3-episode drama series in February 2015 starring Mukai Osamu and Tabe Mikako.
I watched the movie first and then, the drama. Although I didn't read the novel, I suppose the drama (6 hours in total) was closer to the original story. Since I knew how the story would turn out, I felt the drama was too long. In the movie, various touching moments in the novel were captured and made into a compact yet dramatic story. It was nicely done.
The movie won 8 Japan Academy Prizes: Picture of the Year 2014, Director of the Year (Yamazaki Takashi), Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Okada Jun'ichi), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Lighting Direction, Best Sound Recording and Best Film Editing.
Great story, great acting, and great cinematography. The story tells us how precious our life is.
