User Reviews

Denmei Suzuki is a poor farmer with a strong interest in flying. When he tells off her chauffeur, rich Kinuyo Tanaka is impressed. She tells him her brother is a flyig officer and that her father will subsidize his trying out for the air force. He says he is not a beggar, and gets his father to let him go try out. He turns out to be a young star of the air.

The final third of the movie is about a land war. It's well shot, exciting, and I have no idea what war it is. Japan's participation in the First World War -- on the side of the allies -- was limited to diplomatic maneuvering, battles at sea, and the occupation of the German-controlled parts of Micronesia, subsequently given to Japan by the League of Nations. The planes Suzuki and his fellow are current as of 1930; the warfare looks like the First World War.

It's impossible for me to look at a Japanese war movie of this age except through the lens of ninety years. This was made with the Army's cooperation. There are titles that refer to Japan's forbearance. The following year, in September of 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria, the first fight in what would become the Second World War.

"Shingun" (The Army Advances, 1930) is an interesting historical document about the time when it was made. In the early-1930's, many countries produced these kinds of half-documentary-dramas about their country's military. In my home country Finland, we had three movies called "Meidän poikamme" (Our sons), that were propaganda for sure, but lacked a political agenda. "Shingun" by director Ushihara Kiyohiko would appear to be a similar film for Japanese audiences.

I watched this silent film without subtitles, and since I don't yet read kanji characters so well, I had little trouble understanding the final third of the film. This movie goes from pleasant to serious in a bit of a head dive. The narrative concerns a young farmer, to whose field an army airplane makes an unplanned landing. It's a beautiful plane. Later, the farmer meets a soldier with a girlfriend, played by Tanaka Kinuyo. It's a beautiful girlfriend. So if the air force has planes and girls, why not enlist? The protagonist does so, despite his mother, who is very worried.

In the middle, there is lots of documentary footage, that is great, if you are interested in planes. However the final third was the weird one for me, since it didn't look as if the characters were training, but instead engaging in an actual war. So the question I was wondering was: who are they fighting with? The equipment is far too modern for this to be WWI, and the Japanese army didn't invade China until many years later. If this had been made seven years later, it would undoubtedly look different. Besides, the war in this film looks like Japan defending itself against an enemy, since no one flew across sea to the continent. So, for maximum enjoyment of a war film, it would be nice to know who is fighting with whom, so that we know who to root for. Especially if characters die in the conflict depicted.