The Eternal Zero

Kentaro Saeki has failed his bar exam and is unsure what to do with his life. He and his older sister Keiko, a freelance writer, decide to look into the life of their grandfather, Kyuzo Miyabe, who died serving in Japan's special forces during World War II. They learn that the man they had always taken for their grandfather was in fact their grandmother's second husband, and that Miyabe was a kamikaze pilot. As the siblings track down his former comrades, the accounts they collect disagree sharply: some describe an exceptionally gifted pilot, others a man they considered a coward, while all seem to agree that he was afraid of dying and determined to live. The film follows the pair as they try to understand who their grandfather really was.

Takashi Yamazaki directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Tamio Hayashi. It is the fifth of the eighteen films he has directed, arriving between Always: Sunset on Third Street '64 and Stand by Me Doraemon. Junichi Okada plays Miyabe, with Haruma Miura as Kentaro, Kazue Fukiishi as Keiko, and Mao Inoue, Isao Natsuyagi, Jun Fubuki and Junko Fuji in supporting roles.

Released in Japan in December 2013, the film runs 144 minutes and combines action, drama, mystery and war elements. It took about 85 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.3 out of 10 from roughly 3,000 votes, and on TMDB 7 out of 10 from around 76 votes.