While at first seeming like a typical World War II film about the boys in the air corps, there is a disturbing undercurrent in Raigekitai Shutsudo (Battle Troop) that hints at much darker days with a truly sinister tone and is something I was stunned to see. Made in late 1944, when by that time things were going pretty badly for Japan and it had to have been obvious to both civilians and military alike, the film startlingly actually reflects a foreboding sense of doom. For a moment anyway.
After a glorious battle - with the laughably lopsided results mirroring the best/worst self-aggrandizement from any of the gung ho war years films regardless of the side - the naval torpedo men are moved to a tropical land base where they must wait around for their new planes to arrive, which will surely change the fortunes of the war. It's this bit of acknowledgment of a lack of current capability by the poundings they regularly face that's the first surprise. Naturally there are exhortations to increase productivity, etc., and I suspect the film was partially designed to motivate the home front, but also there's a clear message to the troops in general that their struggle is a life and death matter and that death, if it can kill American reptiles (a quote), it expected. Of course the new, improved planes arrive just as a huge fleet begins to try to free The Philippines and the pilots all do their duty.
The film is an obvious attempt to prepare both Japan itself as well as their military in the field for the coming suicide struggle against America and the introduction of the kamikaze, which probably not coincidentally began in the battle for the Philippines. I was completely unaware that this was common enough knowledge that a movie would not have shocked those still at home, or maybe it did. It definitely got me. Director Kajiro Yamamoto, little known but quite prolific, brings the whole thing in as a better than average war film, perhaps having long time collaborators Akira Kurosawa and Ishiro Honda as assistant directors helped him to refine what would otherwise have been a throwaway film. I may be reading too much into things but it strikes me that both men took their lessons well with elements that both would explore in more depth in their later productions.
