"Not one of you is allowed to die until you have killed 10 enemy soldiers."

Letters from Iwo Jima is probably the best movie we watched for Spy/War week (followed closely by The Hurt Locker), and I would venture to say one of the best we have see all summer. So powerful, so moving. This one is probably the purest of the "war" movies because it's the only one we watched that is literally follows the characters into the trenches and the heat of battle. It is also beautifully shot, even with all the dirt and blood. The subtitles forced us to pay close attention, but I think we would have done so anyway because it is completely riveting. We loved Kazunari Ninomiya who played young Saigo, a simple baker who left behind his pregnant wife when he was drafted into service. Sometimes it is difficult to connect emotionally to a character when you're watching the words at the bottom of the screen rather than listening to the words he's saying, but Ninomiya says so much with his eyes that you can't help but feel his pain and fear. He's not your average Japanese soldier, blindly following orders and mechanically fighting for the Empire. His motivation is his desperation to survive and return to his life. He stands up for himself, he's sassy and funny, and he just wants to live to see another day. Also great was the always wonderful Ken Watanabe as the General, and Tsuyoshi Ihara as a former Olympian turned soldier. His scenes with a dying American soldier started me crying and I didn't stop till the end. Clint Eastwood does it again - he just keeps hitting our list of faves for the summer! Brandon has already seen the companion film, Flags of Our Fathers, and I definitely want to see it myself now.