Why did the Japanese Navy build the Yamato class, the largest battleship in history, after the end of the treaty era? Is this a stupid question for the average military fan? Of course it was to deter and defeat the U.S. Navy in the envisioned fleet showdown! That's the regular answer, but it's so uninspired. The latest Japanese war film of 2019, Archimedes, gives an ingenious answer. Just in the Spring Festival to escape the epidemic, stay at home, watch this divine drama - this is definitely a divine drama, not because the action plot is exaggerated, but because this film has a god-like thinking logic and historical adaptation, fully allowing you to appreciate the incomprehensible brain circuits of ordinary people in the island country, so what kind of story does the film tell? What a strange answer? Here's a rip-off for you. (This article is a serious spoiler, read carefully)
■ The movie poster of "The Battle of Archimedes", which tells the story of a mathematical genius and the battleship "Yamato".
Archimedes wars are based on the popular work of the same name by manga artist Norifu Mita, and are fictional stories set in real history. Since it is based on comics, it is not surprising that the various brain holes that appear in this film are not surprising. "The Battle of Archimedes" adopts a flashback narrative approach, the first five minutes of the film reproduce the tragic scene of the battleship Yamato being surrounded and killed by the US carrier-based aircraft in the Battle of Cape Fangzhi on April 7, 1945, which I think is also the most wonderful part of the whole film, which can be said to be the most shocking restoration of the death of Yamato on the screen so far, but in just a few minutes it is better than "Yamato of Men" many years ago. Friends who regard this film as a war film can basically abandon the film after watching the opening of the film, because this is the only war scene in the whole film.
■ The scene of the capsizing and sinking of the battleship Yamato in the film.
After watching the sinking of the Yamato, the camera turns back 12 years ago to 1933, when the film's core event surfaced against the backdrop of Japan's establishment of a pseudo-Manchukuo, withdrawal from the League of Nations, and isolation— the Japanese Navy's seminar on the construction of a new type of warship. At the meeting, the two factions expressed sharp opposition, with Lieutenant General Mutsumitsu Nagano, Rear Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, and Rear Admiral Yoshio Fujioka advocating the construction of a new type of aircraft carrier, while Rear Admiral Shigetaro Shimada and Vice Admiral Heizama Tadamichi Shipbuilding advocated the construction of super battleships. The above figures are indeed his or her with the exception of Fujioka and Hirayama, and the prototypes of the two shipbuilding experts are obviously Fujimoto Kihisa and Hiraga, the leaders of the Japanese Navy's shipbuilding technology in the early showa years. Since the battleship faction prepared a mighty and domineering large-scale model, and the proposed cost was cheaper than the aircraft carrier, the pressure on the aircraft carrier faction won the initiative, and the final decision would be made at the second meeting two weeks later.
■ The central event of the film is the Navy's seminar on newly built warships.
After the meeting, the aircraft carrier sent everyone to the booth to drink and relieve their boredom, and Yamamoto found that there was a problem of falsely reporting the cost of the battleship faction, so he wanted to expose the opponent from the recalculation of the cost, so that the aircraft carrier construction plan could pass, but Fujioka thought that the person who could calculate the cost within two weeks did not exist, and the result was instantly punched in the face. They meet the arrogant University of Tokyo Mathematics Department's Naoto, who has amazing computing power, known as "Archimedean regeneration", an authentic mathematical maniac whose mantra is "numbers don't lie" (which makes the world's false accounts unbearable?). Naturally gifted but hated soldiers, Yamamoto persuaded him for reasons that the construction of the strongest warship would inspire the belligerence of the populace and the military, leading to war between Japan and the United States. Determined to prevent war, Yamamoto accepted the task, and Yamamoto immediately gave him the rank of chief planner and the position of inspector general, and was responsible for calculating the actual cost of the super battleship. Seeing this, the author probably understands that this film is an anti-war plus anti-corruption theme.
■ The mathematical genius's mantra is "numbers don't lie."
It was not until the Navy Province took office, but the battleship faction refused to provide detailed design data on the grounds of secrecy, and it was also hampered at every turn. However, the protagonist has his own aura, Nao asked to see the real battleship in order to get an intuitive impression, so he was allowed to visit the battleship "Nagato", he peeked at the design drawings in the captain's room, and then measured the size of the battleship with a tape measure one meter and one meter, and finally made up for shipbuilding, and even drew a design drawing of a new type of battleship in a few days, which is the most bizarre place in the whole film, a university student who has never learned shipbuilding and drawing, basically a blind warship, can actually depict the battleship design of senior designers independently. Even in today's highly developed computer technology, it may not be realistic. The next step is to calculate the cost of construction according to the design drawings, but the unit price of a screw cannot be known, or through the ambiguous relationship with his own rich family. However, the battleship faction made a sinister move, and held a meeting in advance, and Naoshi could only calculate on the train overnight.
■Naochi prepares to measure the dimensions of the battleship Nagato with a tape measure.
At the second meeting, Tongzhi designed a book-like cost calculation formula on the spot, which only needs to be substituted for steel consumption to calculate the cost, and the accuracy of the formula was verified with the data of the "Chidori" mine boat and the "Myoko" heavy cruiser, and then calculated that the cost of the new battleship was more than double the previous quotation. Just when the aircraft carrier faction thought it had time, Hirayama admitted that the cost was fraudulent, but he claimed that the move was to hide the secret of the super battleship and carry out strategic deception against the United States. The battleship faction thought that it was a safe victory, but unexpectedly counterattacked, pointing out a major flaw in Hirayama's design, forcing Hirayama to bear the fault, withdrawing the proposal, the plot reversed again, and the aircraft carrier design case passed smoothly. At this time, Yamamoto revealed his true thoughts, he did not really want to prevent Japan and the United States from going to war, but tried to use the aircraft carrier to attack the key point of the US military - Pearl Harbor at the first time of the war!
■ At the second meeting, Naoru used a formula to calculate that the actual cost of the Hirayama case was as high as 175.64 million yen.
The film does not end there, and a month after the meeting, Lieutenant General Hirayama invites Nao to visit the 1:20 model of the super battleship, hoping that Nao will help him refine the design and put it into construction. Naoru thinks that the super battleship will cause war, but still refuses. Hirayama pointedly pointed out that whether or not a super battleship is built, Japan will inevitably go to war, and Japan and the United States will lose the war! At the same time, Hirayama pointed out that the Japanese never know how to concede defeat, and they will definitely fight until the country is destroyed. It should be said that Hirayama's remarks are indeed to the point and seek truth from facts, but the following ideas are too beyond conventional thinking. Finally, Hirayama reveals the true purpose of building the super battleship: he wants to build a battleship that the Japanese regard as a symbol of the country and considers it unsinkable, and when it is sunk by the American army in the war, it will bring a great sense of despair to the Japanese, so as to accept the defeat in order to save the fate of the country, and it is for this purpose that he named the battleship "Yamato"! In other words, from Hirayama's point of view, the world's strongest battleship was not designed for victory, but for defeat! Feeling Hirayama's "good intentions", Nao agreed to his request.
■ Hirayama finally reveals to Nao nao the true purpose of building the super battleship, which is more like a lie in combination with his previous statement.
Nine years later, Admiral Yamamoto boarded the New Flagship of the Combined Fleet, the Yamato, and Nao, who had already been promoted to Nakasa, was among the welcome ships. As he watched the Yamato depart from port, he burst into tears as he watched the Yamato depart, foresaw the future fate of the battleship and the Japanese nation, as did Heesan.
■ In early 1942, Yamamoto Boarding the new flagship Yamato.
If the war films filmed in Japan after the war were cloaked in anti-war clothing, then "Archimedes" is undoubtedly the most peculiar performance of anti-war themes. The author is very skeptical that Hiraga Anda and his protégés were really like Hirayama thought in the film when they designed the Yamato class, and any ship designer would not want to see the battleship he had painstakingly built end up in the sea, but the idea of building a super battleship in order to make the people despair is very illogical. The biggest contradiction in this film is that hirayama hides the secret of the super battleship by falsely announcing the cost, and then the whole nation is desperate because of the sinking of the "Yamato", and if all the Japanese people know about the existence of the "Yamato", can the Americans not know? So what is the significance of the previous false estimate? In real history, the construction of the Yamato class has always been top secret, and most Japanese people did not learn the truth about this huge ship until the end of the war, and what really made the Japanese despair should be Hiroshima, the mushroom clouds rising in Nagasaki, and the steel torrent of the Soviet Red Army sweeping through the northeast.
■ At the first meeting, Ōkaku and Shimada were completely mesmerized by Hirayama's super battleship model.
Although "The Battle of Archimedes" has logical problems in plot design and theme intention, it is still a military film with a unique perspective and exquisite details, which is worth watching. First of all, the film is very good at the historical style of the Japanese Navy before World War II, reflecting the reality of factional struggles within the Navy, such as the confrontation between the aviation faction represented by Yamamoto and the battleship faction represented by Shimada, as well as the infighting between the Hiraga faction and the Fujimoto faction in the field of shipbuilding technology, as well as the collusion between the navy's top brass and civilian chaebols; secondly, the film shows the consistent fine level of japanese people in the use of computer CG to reproduce Japanese naval ships, such as the image of the "Yamato" at the beginning and end of the film based on historical facts and presents detailed differences, the opening of the film The Yamato is the final form of strengthening air defense armament, and the Yamato at the end of the film is the original form of the new one, and the two 155 mm secondary guns on its side are shown; finally, some details in the film are worthy of the taste of military fans, such as the model presented at the new ship seminar, Fujioka's aircraft carrier plan with three 203 mm twin guns, and Hirayama's super battleship combined with the characteristics of the historical "Kongo generation ship" design in the Case of The Peace Andyo case. If you are interested in the history of the Japanese Navy, this anti-war drama is still worth recommending.
■ At the end of the film, the Yamato ship is shot heading for high seas, noting the 155 mm secondary gun on the side of the ship, which is typical of the Yamato's initial service status.
Jamyansk was originally an obscure town on the battlefields of the Soviet Union. In early 1942, 100,000 German troops were surrounded here, the first time in history that a German army of this magnitude had been encircled. What happened next was a miracle in the history of human airlift, the first time that a force of more than 100,000 people was fully and long-term in the air supply. The German officers and men in the encirclement withstood the most brutal tests in unimaginably harsh natural environments, and completed their redemption in the most difficult desperate situations - they stubbornly resisted the four-month siege of up to 1.5 million Soviet troops, and finally ushered in freedom in the spring.
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