Zero (1984) User Reviews

Follows the war in the Pacific well.

[HoosierBob · 7/10 · 22 November 2019]

I first saw this movie when I rented it at Blockbuster video in the 1980's...I am a self-appointed student on all things related to WW2 and this book follows the same events as described by the real life ace and author Saburo Sakai. While the film is NOT intended as a biography of he nor any other particular pilit, the action and historical sequences are portrayed as Sakai described them. The Japanese have always been very good at model making and they have used very good models thruout of the aircraft used in the different phases of the war...so we won't be plagued with shots of AT-6 trainers made to look like the Mitsubishi fighter. Also in the film are representations of the Grumman F4F Wildcat, Curtiss P-40, Martin B-26, Boeing B 17, the Mitsubishi"Betty", etc. The angle of turns were not yet mastered yet for this film, and those of us who can fly will notice this, but IMHO it does not detract from the film.

The actors speak Japanese but the version I saw was dubbed in English...and this will ALWAYS make the language timing seem "off" in places. Like most modern war flicks, this film also has the near obligatory "love interest".

This tile may be difficult to find because I have tried for years to acquire a copy for myself (in English)...and some enterprising business might see my post and see a potential to fulfill a need for the Japanese side of this historical event?

Like a Godzilla film without Godzilla... (SPOILERS!)

[zardoz12 · 18 October 2003]

...in that the same studio (Toho) and the same special effects people made this epic along with the Gojira movies, so you almost expect the big green guy to make a showing. Part docudrama, part action film, "Zerosen moyu" tells the story of the Japanese Navy's (in)famous Mitsubishi Zero fighter through the lives of an ace pilot and a ground crew member. Hamada (the ace) suffers from the worst dubbed voice of any Japanese film; not even the "monster boys" sound as obnoxious. Mitsushimi, the armorer/mechanic sounds weirdly British, and the dialogue seems to have been written for laughs. But back to the "story." We first run across the duo running away from the Navy flight training school, tired of the getting beaten up for minor infractions. They are stopped, however, by a naval officer who then shows them the prototype of the Zero (named after the then-supposed 2700 years of Japanese national unity), and afterward he makes one of those standard pep talks you always see AWOL boot campers getting in the movies. Our young men, clad in the dorkiest sailor suits ever, agree to stay. Mitsushimi washes out of flight school and becomes a fighter mechanic, while Hamada graduates early (Japanese flight training took three to four years, a useless factoid I know.) Although he is the best in his class, Hamada never is assigned to a carrier wing (the budget was probably too small to build a fake carrier), and instead spends his naval career on Rabul after the island is taken. Improbably, Mitsushimi is his mechanic. From then on it's action, action, action as the Zeros shoot down anything the Americans send up, though the losses get to wear on Hamada. After the battle of Midway, the mechanic goes back to Japan for more training, and runs across a girl, thus beginning the goofy romantic sub-plot always seen in aviator movies. The war grinds on, as Hamada gets the chance to fumble the ball in defending Admiral Yamamoto's plane, and navy brass back in Tokyo argue about upgrading the Zero's paper thin armor (the vote is nay.) By 1943 or 1944 Hamada is badly burned after his Zero is shot down, and visits the family farm outside of Yokohama on hospital leave. He is accompanied by that same wistfull harmonica playing Kurosawa used in "Dodes' ka-den." The scene where he sees his mother tries to be a tear jerker, but only winds up maudlin. When Mitsushima sees Hamada's charred but still-usable hands, and hears that he still wishes to fly, he tries to get the girl to love him because he knows Hamada has a death wish. The forced romance (shown in a collage, with a nightclub singer crooning in the backround!) is a failure, and Hamada keeps on flying to the end, where he is blown out of the sky by US Navy Hellcat fighters. After Japan's surrender, Mitsushima asks his commander for a Zero, and in an odd ceremony the plane is set on fire while idling on the tarmac as pilots and groundcrewmen sob their guts out, hence the title "Zero on Fire".

What hurts "Zero" (as it was known here) besides the awful dubbing and the by-the-numbers story, are the technical inaccuracies. There are few flyable Zeros left, so Toho had to build full sized scale models for their actor to sit in. The problem is that the Zero evolved as the war went on, with each new model (and there were five) sporting different wings, engines, and numbers of guns. However, if we are to believe "Zero", nothing changed from 1939 to 1945, because their models are all A6M2s, the type first seen at Pearl Harbor. Squadron markings are also wrong, with late war unit codes used throught the movie. American planes are misnamed, with the F4U Corsair becoming the "F4A Corvair," and the B-29 Superfortress becoming the "Super Flying Fortress." In a scene where US Navy pilots are briefed about the capabilities of a captured Zero, all the people wearing eyeglasses are wearing contemporary fashions and there is a black pilot in the audience. There were no black pilots flying for the Navy in the Pacific theater in World War II. More obvious are the trucks used by the Japanese Navy; all of them are late 1970's Nissans. Oddly enough there are period trucks in the background, but none of them move. In summary, that goofy B-17 movie "Memphis Belle" was more realistic. Watch "Tora! Tora! Tora!" instead.

Bad, but not as bad as Pearl Harbor!

[Homer900 · 3/10 · 20 November 2007]

A very Japanese movie with Japanese sensibilities. The special effects were good, but wrapped around a movie that appeared to have been filmed in a warehouse district half the time and on a paper mache island the other half. Hokey dialog dubbing, American servicemen cheering the breathless announcement of an aircraft able to defeat the Zero (while wearing muttonchops, long hair and moustaches), etc., etc. I could go on, but this is like watching a train wreck; you just can't keep your eyes off the inevitable disaster this movie is. At least there is no attempt at pomposity disguised as grandeur that was Pearl Harbor. However, the film maker's attempt is an honest one; one that is silly to a western audience, but a serious attempt nonetheless. If given the choice of watching the Michael Bay version of Pearl Harbor-lite and this, I'll watch this.

aka Zero Fighter

[alowe-1 · 10/10 · 5 February 2004]

I first came across this movie several years ago, with the English title of "Zero Fighter." My opinion is, all things considered, it is not a bad war movie. It is one of the first I've seen that tells the tale of WWII from the Japanese side. Of course the special effects were decidedly Japanese, spectacular and pretty obviously faked. Still, they worked to convey the story. I wish I could find this on video tape, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

They called it the Zero

[DanTheMan2150AD · 9/10 · 27 July 2023]

There's something strangely perfect about Zero being directed by Toshio Masuda, having been kicked out of the kamikaze in 1944 for being excessively liberal and pacifistic. It's a real treat to finally see another one of his war epics after so many years, this time him and him alone in the chair. Based on a serialized story by Kunio Yanagida, this is the story of the Mitsubishi Zero through the eyes of the engineers who designed the plane and the pilots who flew it.

Shoichi Hamada is a pilot flying the Imperial Navy's ace in the hole, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, during the first years of the war the Zero is seemingly unstoppable, shooting down almost every type of plane the allies send at them. Hamada's best friend is Kunio Mizushima, assigned to the ground crew, they are both in love with one girl... but will the ravages of war tear them apart?

Toshio Masuda's direction is simply sublime, taking what worked on Tora! Tora! Tora! Over a decade ago and bringing it back tenfold. It is clear Masuda had no love for war and thus directs the film with a dash of gritty realism, unflinching in its portrayal of death, bad decisions and ultimate endeavour for a lost cause. By stark contrast when the film isn't wowing you with its climatic and brutally intense battle sequences, it shines with a glorious use of colour.

The plotting is well done, keeping the story of the Zero first and foremost while framing the story of the young pilot around it. Masuda seemingly backhands the naval authorities for using the pilots as expendable property. In general, the film has no respect for higher authorities, portraying most of them as simply using their soldiers, and not caring about their lives. The story is told in reverse, starting from 1944 and going in reverse to 1937. The pacing is well done, keeping everything at about the same level.

The acting is great on most parts, and even the expats seem to be doing well, it's often noted how poor a lot of them were in Japanese films of the era but here they do a standup job. As for the main characters, they are directed with enthusiasm that goes with their youthfulness. The love triangle is directed well but in a way, it's almost like a precursor to the later Michael Bay shakey-cam fest, Pearl Harbour, ending on that usual "war romance" subversion.

Daijiro Tsutsumi as Hamada brings all sorts of emotions to the table, and by the end, it is clear the Japanese war machine has become him. Kunio Mizushima, played by Jun Hashizume, shows clear concern for his friend as well as a great love for the female love interest, Shizuko Yoshikawa. Shizuko Yoshikawa, herself is a very well-done love interest. She clearly has a mixed bag of emotions for the two leads and loves them both on different levels. Tetsuro Tamba's brief appearance as Isoroku Yamamoto casts him as a very sympathetic man, clearly concerned for the lives of his young pilots despite only appearing for about 5 minutes. Shin Takuma does well as Teruo Tojo, the Zero's financier and Mitsubishi Motors president, showing quite a youthful energy and enthusiasm for his character.

The special effects by later Biollante to Destoroyah Effects Director Koichi Kawakita are very well done, clearly showing off just as much enthusiasm for pyrotechnic effects as his teacher Teruyoshi Nakano. The miniatures look great, and it's nice to see a few Zero miniatures portrayed accurately as white in the opening 30 minutes. The camera angles during the air battle scenes are daring, and Kawakita makes use of frenetic camera movements during the battle scenes to enhance the combat. There is quite a bit of stock footage in the film, all the way from Storm of the Pacific to Kawakita's own Zero Pilot and to The Imperial Navy, but the original effects all look fantastic and blend very well with Kawakita's efforts.

The music by Harumi Ibe has a dated late 70s-early 80s quality that actually works for the film, and the score uses a lot of horns as well as 70s-style guitar work that make it clear Ibe was primarily used to the 70s style of composing and hadn't quite made the jump to the 80s sound design yet. Even then it's a great score and the film's theme song, Dawn, is sung beautifully by Yujiro Ishihara. Befitting the film's historic ending scene well.

Overall, I can't recommend Zero enough. It's clear how much Toho bought their A-Game in 1984, between this, The Return of Godzilla and Sayonara Jupiter, their tokusatsu efforts were on top form. If you ever get the chance to see it, do so.