"The Pacific"

[sharkbit]

Originally Posted by Penguin

So doesn't the series follow real characters? I thought it is based on the memoirs of two marines.

thanks for the recommendation, sharkbit, i will definitely take a look into the book by Eugene Sledge, it's only 5,60 Euros here - sounds like a good buy!

I haven't seen any of the series(don't have HBO), but, from what I've read about the series, I thought it was supposed to be based on the experiences of Leckie, Sledge, and Basilone.
Hollywoodized, of course.

I wonder if there is a Japanese version of "Pacific", a tv-series or something. Not one that would praise the emperor etc. but show the human side of the war from the perspective of a Japanese foot soldier.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by sharkbit

I haven't seen any of the series(don't have HBO), but, from what I've read about the series, I thought it was supposed to be based on the experiences of Leckie, Sledge, and Basilone.
Hollywoodized, of course.

HBO was offering a free 3 month deal through my cable provider. Might be worth a call to see if they're doing that in your area as well.

And you can watch episode 1 of The Pacific for free on www.hbo.com

[August]

Originally Posted by OneToughHerring

I wonder if there is a Japanese version of "Pacific", a tv-series or something. Not one that would praise the emperor etc. but show the human side of the war from the perspective of a Japanese foot soldier.

It's a movie not a TV series but try "Letters from Iwo Jima" It's very good.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by OneToughHerring

I wonder if there is a Japanese version of "Pacific", a tv-series or something. Not one that would praise the emperor etc. but show the human side of the war from the perspective of a Japanese foot soldier.

Not new by any means, and I haven't seen it yet (it's somewhere in my Netflix queue), but Masaki Kobayashi's 1959 trilogy The Human Condition comes highly recommended.

Masaki Kobayashi’s mammoth humanist drama is one of the most staggering achievements of Japanese cinema. Originally filmed and released in three parts, the nine-and-a-half-hour The Human Condition (Ningen no joken), adapted from Junpei Gomikawa’s six-volume novel, tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji (handsome Japanese superstar Tatsuya Nakadai) from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet POW. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage. A raw indictment of its nation’s wartime mentality as well as a personal existential tragedy, Kobayashi’s riveting, gorgeously filmed epic is novelistic cinema at its best.

And Letters From Iwo Jima is also worth checking out, as August suggested. Companion piece to Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers, done from the point of view of the Japanese soldiers.

Oh yes, the Eastwood film about the Iwo Jima - battle. I've heard that it's pretty good. I saw the part about Americans, it was good.

I've actually heard about the Human Condition - trilogy, if I understood correctly it's a kind of a anti-socialism/Soviet Union - type of film. Not very surprising coming from the post-war (or before war) Japanese.

A recommendation of my own, I've read a book and seen a film called Fires on the plains. Really hard hitting stuff, takes place in the Phillippines. Cannibalism etc. Although it's written by Shohei Ooka who was a soldier in the war it doesn't spare the Japanese at all.

[August]

Originally Posted by OneToughHerring

A recommendation of my own, I've read a book and seen a film called Fires on the plains. Really hard hitting stuff, takes place in the Phillippines. Cannibalism etc. Although it's written by Shohei Ooka who was a soldier in the war it doesn't spare the Japanese at all.

I have that on dvd. What a sad story.

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Originally Posted by August

It's a movie not a TV series but try "Letters from Iwo Jima" It's very good.

It was # 1 at the box office in Japan for five weeks. I guess they liked it.

[sharkbit]

Originally Posted by August

It's a movie not a TV series but try "Letters from Iwo Jima" It's very good.

Good movie and a very good book.
The book is titled "So Sad to Fall in Battle". It is based on the letters from General Kuribayashi, commanding general on Iwo Jima, to his wife and kids.
Really puts a human face on the whole ordeal.

I always thought that the movie and book did a good job showing the Japanese soldier as a human being and not as some fanatical automaton willing to die for the Emperor.

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Originally Posted by ReFaN

6 months until it airs in sweden. DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOH!

If only there were some other way to acquire it!!

[Hans Schultz]

second episode is on tonight! I'm looking forward to the series but after the first episode I have some reservations..

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Well, what's happening in the episode RIGHT NOW is pretty intense.

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Originally Posted by Torvald Von Mansee

Well, what's happening in the episode RIGHT NOW is pretty intense.

OK, I think this where Basilone gets the MOH

[bookworm_020]

They are running teaser trailers here in Australia, just saying it's "comming soon"! Might be quicker to buy it and ship it from the states!

[Bubblehead1980]

great show so far, the ending of episode 1 cracked me up(when they were singing happy birthday to sid phillips) lol Episode 2's battle scenes were very well done and very intense, A+ so far.