AEGIS

Theme and Story

Aegis is the most advanced and high-tech equipped warship, deployed only in a few countries in the world, named after the magical shield in Greek mythology. Japanese constitution that was adopted right after the WWII prohibits the country to possess the military forces, yet the Self Defence Forces was formed during the Korean War to serve the necessity to defend the country. SDF is not supposed to attack anyone until it is actually attacked first, due to this constitution. That means they cannot do anything, even though they clearly know that a deadly missile is flying towards the country's capitol. So what if that missle is powerful enough to destroy entire Tokyo and kill 12 million people?

That is exactly the question that the Japanese government is facing in this movie. One of the Aegis warship gets seajacked by a group of terrorists from a certain Asian country hostile to Japan, and they threathen the government with their tough demands, targeting a powerful missile, stolen from the U.S. military base, towards Tokyo.

Under such a huge political setting, though, each conduct is carried out by human beings, all with their own belief, dedication to their own country in their own format, love and hatred to someone, passion to something, everyday problems, and their unique humanly faults. Hisashi Sengoku (Hiroyuki Sanada) is a petty officer on this Aegis ship, a regular man who had been treating his duty in SDF as an everyday job, but all of a sudden, he is thrown into the situation with the terrorists. He has to fight back, not because of the political agenda, but because of his emotional ties to the ship and to his peole. But how? Who is the mysterious young officer Kou Kisaragi (Ryo Katsuji), a new comer on the ship? Is he an enemy or ally?

The theme and the story poses these big questions that Japanese people have been aware but avoiding - what is our country? What is our most important thing? Is it worth defending, even if I have to kill someone for that purpose? And what do we have to do to defend my important things? The movie does not give you the exact answer, but inplies what the movie makers think through Sengoku's eyes..

Amazing group of top Japanese actors and the staff

Hiroyuki Sanada is finally discovered by the international audience in "The Last Samurai", but he has held a steady grip on the top actor position for many years in Japan. Supporting actors include Kiichi Nakai ("Warriors of the Heaven and Earth") as the terrorist leader Ho Yonfa, Koichi Sato("KT") as an intelligence agency official Daisuke Atsumi, and Akira Terao ("Half a Confession") as the sub-captain of the Aegis ship. All of the top 4 actors are the past Japan Academy Award Best Actor winners and each usually plays the main role in a movie. In addition, Ryo Katsuji is a up-and-coming young hopeful who has played sharp personalities in movies such as "Battle Royale II".Director Junji Sakamoto is known for his superb skill to express the human drama in variety of settings, such as one of the best political fiction "KT". They tapped into some Hollywood top talent as well, including Trevor Jones (music) and Willian Anderson (Editing).

Unprecedented scale and scope

For the first time in its 50 year history, Marine Self Defence Forces and Air Self Defence Forces provided the full support for the movie shooting. The movie was shot both in the real Aegis ship and in the special set built in Shizuoka prefecture. SDF also flew two real F-2 fighters and a practice plane with a cameraman on-board for the purpose of filming.

The scale and scope of the movie production is truly unprecedented in Japan, and the production company is eager to distribute it in the international market. They are currently negotiating the deals, having received offers from 32 countries in this year's Cannes Film Market.

Original novel of "Aegis" is a huge story. 654 pages of 2-column, small fonts tell the complicated and surprising grand scheme, and the human story of each character. When I read the original novel, I felt so excited and read it through in 3 days, sacrificing my sleep.

So naturally, when I started watching the movie, I was wondering how they shrank down the story into the 2hr 8min movie format. I knew it was a mistake, but I could not help it. And it WAS a mistake. The movie keeps the bone of the original novel, but the meat has a different taste. It certaily is another creature.

The story's vertical thread is "the fight". One of Japan's Marine Self Defence Forces' Aegis warship revolts against its government, together with the terrorists from a "certain" Asian country hostile to Japan. They have the high -tech biochemical weapon strong enought to destroy whole Tokyo and threatens Japanese government. Two men are forced into this deadly fight while the government is forced to face the facts they have been trying to ignore for the past 60 years.

The horizontal thread is the human relationships and passion to something. The petty officer and the mysterious young crew, father and son, ties to one's collegues and comrades, love to his/her own country - each fights for one's own love and passion.

The movie does not tell each character's story in depth like the original novel does, and instead, shows graphical implications that requires the viewers' imagination. The story line is concentrated on the fight on the ship and the contrasting confusion in the government meeting room. The movie's scheme is made possible by the excellent acting by the actors and the powerful image of the ship, the fighter planes, and the vast ocean backdrop.

The main role, the chief Hisashi Sengoku, is played by Hiroyuki Sanada ( "The Last Samurai", "The Twilight Samurai") with the great skills - his transition from a regular middle-management guy to a fighter is so convincing, and his actions are so powerful as usual. All the main actors, including Akira Terao (sub-captain of the ship), Kiichi Nakai (the terrorist), Koichi Sato (the intelligent office leader) and Ryo Katsuji (the mysterious young crew) are really impressive, and several other actors, including the terrorist members, revolt members, and the government people have left strong impressions as well. In Japanese, "kakko-ii" (good-looking, cool, exciting..) is the word that comes up to my mind to describe all those characters. It turns out that they are all "samurais" in their own meaning.

The Self Defence Forces (both Marine and Air) gave the unprecedented cooperation to this movie, saying that the story reveals the realistic human beings in their organizations, not the catoonish, simplified war-machines that often appears in novels, movies, and comics. Their support made the realistic and powerful images possible and gives the "Top Gun"-like upbeat excitement to this rather dark and bloody story.

The original writer Harutoshi Fukui says that he is aiming to expand the territory of "novels" by collaborating with movies and other media, and accordingly, many spun-off products have been introduced before the movie release, such as comics, video games and model ships. He is involved in two other movies that were released this year ("Lorelei" and "Sengoku Jieitai 1549").

In many ways, I believe it is an unprecedented film in Japan, and that the movie itself is living up to its unprecedented-ness. This is not an easy-to-swallow fast food. It requires viewers' digestive effort to fully enjoy its real taste. At the same time, it is not a difficult-to-understand, self-satisfactory product. It is simply a large-scale, all-star, exciting political-action movie. Very well constructed, and very well acted. I still feel a chill when I remember some of the impressive scenes from the movie. And it also gave me a food-for-thoughts about the identity of my country. I hope the movie will be released in many other countries, as it is something that Japanese movie industry should be proud to show to the world.

By Misty (Hiroyuki Sanada Enthusiast)