Transcript

ELIZABETH JACKSON: And still at the movies, but this time in Japan, where this weekend a big-budget movie about kamikaze pilots hits theatres.

There are concerns that its content might be offensive to older Australians.

It's a film about kamikaze pilots, the suicide attackers who wrought death and destruction on allied shipping in the final years of World War II.

Here's our North Asia Correspondent, Shane McLeod.

(Sound of music from For Those We Love)

SHANE MCLEOD: With a multi-million dollar budget, a star cast, and a pop soundtrack, For Those We Love looks set to be a Japanese box office hit.

The big-budget production has been in the making for more than a year. It focuses on the real-life story of Tome Torihama, a woman who ran the military-designated restaurant near an air base that was home to Japan's kamikaze unit.

It tells the story of her relationship with the young men she watched head off on their missions, never to return.

(Excerpt from For Those We Love)

A film on Japan's suicide attackers was always going to be controversial, and made more so by the notoriety of the film's writer and executive producer.

Shintaro Ishihara is the sometimes combative governor of Tokyo, the city's de facto mayor. He's a politician known for his forthright views on Japanese history, and on immigration.

The film's director, Taku Shinjo, says he knew he was dealing with difficult subject matter, but says he wanted to make a film that showed the reality of the young men sent off to war.

"I certainly have no intention of glorifying war or making war seem beautiful in any way," he says. "When you consider the fact that the military commanders ordered these men to do what they did, I think about these men and these commanding officers, and I am furious at them."

This film is the latest in a series of big-budget productions that have taken Japan's wartime history as their key subject matter. Often they're overlaid with the human tale of sacrifice and a dash of romance.

But one of the film's elements is likely to provoke an angry response in the region - Japan is frequently under attack from China and Korea for allegedly distorting its wartime history.

In this film one of the characters is a young Korean, played by a Japanese actor. He's a willing member of the kamikaze squad and prepares for his mission by singing a traditional Korean song. The characters is based on a real-life person.

Mr Shinjo says his film is not about a political argument, but showing the reality of the young men sent off to defend Japan.

The film opens across the country this weekend.

This is Shane McLeod in Tokyo for AM.