Angelina Jolie denies wartime movie she directed is anti-Japanese
Actress rebuffs criticism of film she directed about the life of American wartime prisoner
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 04 February, 2015, 10:52pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 04 February, 2015, 10:52pm
Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Angelina Jolie denies wartime movie she directed is anti-Japanese
Angelina Jolie has dismissed suggestions that Unbroken, the film she directed about the experiences of an American POW during the second world war, is anti-Japanese.
In an interview conducted through an exchange of letters with the conservative Yomiuri newspaper, Jolie replied to the claim that the movie could provoke anti-Japanese feelings since its release in China.
"I would be very disappointed if anyone in any country tried to use the film as a pretext for any anti-Japanese sentiment," Jolie said.
"In any case, Japan's achievements in the 70 years since the war speak for itself," she added. "You are an ally and a friend, a leading democracy, one of the strongest economies in the world and you play a leading role in international peace and security.
" Unbroken is not a film about Japan, nor is it an anti-Japanese film," Jolie emphasised. "Louie Zamperini loved Japan. He described carrying the torch in the [Nagano Winter] Olympics as the proudest moment in his life.
"Those who have a chance to see the film will be able to judge for themselves."
Unfortunately, no date for a release in Japanese cinemas has been agreed. Given the anger the movie has aroused in nationalists here, it is considered unlikely that any distributor will risk being associated with the title.
Released in the US on Christmas Day, the film is based on the nonfiction book by Laura Hillenbrand on the life of Olympic athlete and war veteran Zamperini.
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption was published in 2010, with Japanese objections primarily focused on the depiction of the experiences of Zamperini, who died in July, at the hands of prison guards after his capture in the Pacific.
Eight of the 11 crew aboard Zamperini's B-24 Liberator were killed when the aircraft crashed on a search-and-rescue mission off Hawaii in May 1943. Only Zamperini and pilot Russel Phillips survived and were taken aboard a Japanese warship off the Marshall Islands 47 days later.
Zamperini was severely beaten and mistreated, with Mutsuhiro Watanabe - whom the POWs nicknamed "The Bird" - singling him out for particularly harsh treatment until the end of the war.
Jolie also defended her depiction of Watanabe in the film, saying she saw him as "an individual, not as someone who represented the Japanese people as a whole".
Japan's right wing is particularly incensed at descriptions in the book of POWs being "beaten, burned, stabbed or clubbed to death, beheaded, killed during medical experiments or eaten alive in acts of cannibalism".
The movie does not touch on the cannibalism by Japanese soldiers because that was not something Zamperini experienced, Jolie said. "It is Louie's story of resilience and forgiveness that I wanted to tell," she said.
Conservatives here have labelled her a racist and internet postings have suggested she should be "assassinated" for directing the film.
