User Reviews

Intriguing documentary that shows what the world of Imperial Japan in color. Made up of mostly home movie taken by the Japanese as well as soldiers fighting them, the film is a moving picture book of Japan and the war in color. Its not a history of the war, its just the film arranged chronologically with diary entries and other accounts to put what we are seeing into context. We see Japan at peace, we see its leaders meeting other Axis leaders and we see the war and from both the Japanese and American perspective (This film includes some well worn color film of Pearl Harbor taken by a serviceman there.) Its a neat little footnote that turns what many feel is a black and white war into something colorful and alive.As narrator Brian Cox says numerous times, no one has seen the films in decades. The film was locked away and forgotten so the result was that no one realized that there actually was color film of Japan prior to and during the course of the war. Its amazing and seeing things like the cherry blossoms really takes your breath away while some of the pictures of the suffering become so much more poignant. For those interested in the war its a must.

Overall, Japan's War In Colour is a rarity- and a must see for historians of war and war buffs alike. The scenes of color footage, especially that from American airplanes, is devastating- far better than not only contemporary war films, but anything Hollywood has put out since, and if one recalls the video game-like atmosphere surrounding the First Gulf War, it will surprise one to see how eerily similar scenes from half a century were, as we hear tailgunners lock in and obliterate their targets with great precision; sometimes even shooting fleeing Japanese civilians in fields or on beaches. But it is more than a mere filmic experience. It captures a human quality too often missing in war films, be they fictive or documentary. There is an ambiance to this film which, because it is in color, heightens the sense of reality and immediacy of the ghostly images before you. Almost all of these people are likely long dead, yet, there they are, not in grainy black and white, but, as the old TV slogan went, in 'living color.' Their living, then hollowed, expressions core into a viewer like only the naked image can.

Finally, this film also sets the record straight about the neglected 'Pacific War'- that it was even bloodier than the 'European War,' accounting for close to 50 million of the 80 million people killed. Such truths are often not touched in documentaries where political sensitivities are heightened, and for that reason I doubt this DVD will be a big seller in Japan. Yet, for these and many other unenumerated reasons, I cannot recommend Japan's War In Colour highly enough. And, as a cherry (blossom?) on top, it once again proved my gut has never has never let me down. Nor will it let yours down. It is simply a masterful film, in both conception and presentation. Take that, Mr. Burns!

For most, WWII has been something visually learned about through black-and-white video in the dimensions of the 4:3 screen (unless they're teaching it via Hollywood fiction these days... which wouldn't surprise me). There is a distance, marking that era as something that doesn't really apply to us. We're colour people. It's a new world.

Well, here we have a collection of colour film, mostly relating to Japan, covering the lead-up, through to the aftermath, of WWII (which for Japan lasted 8 years, starting with their invasion of China). I doubt it was all shot in widescreen, but it's presented in the widescreen format, without distortion. Suddenly, it's not so far away any more.

I've seen two notable features relating to Japan in WWII in whole or in part from the Japanese characters' perspective in recent years: Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) and Nanjing! Nanjing! (2009). They are both interesting, are filmed excellently, and move the viewer (and you won't forget the latter of the two).

In comparison, this documentary pieced together from a variety of found film sources, plus readings from diaries and journals, packs a punch you don't see coming. How much colour film could there be, and what would be on it? There's quite a lot, and it gets more and more difficult to watch as it proceeds.

The senseless loss of life, in a war based in large part on religion, is just staggering. And the "god"-man who could have stopped it all walks out of it with impunity, to cheers.

Nobody comes out of this looking good. Carpet bombing of civilians, culminating in reckless nuclear destruction and the slaughter of children by radiation poisoning are war crimes the US has never been held to account for.

You won't learn much about the strategies of the war, or the politics of it, but a surprising number of key events in the war are presented, and they are in chronological order, so you can get a sense of the times and the progression of it. And you will certainly be reminded again about the barbarity that people are ever-willing to inflict on each other, and you'll see and hear the results inside Japan.

I think every person should see this documentary, to learn something important about humans.