Clint Eastwood's Oscar-nominated companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers reconstructs the battle for the island of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese army. Shooting in Japanese, Eastwood focuses on a small group of soldiers commanded by Lieutenant General Kuribayashi (brilliantly played by The Last Samurai's Ken Watanabe), who face the overwhelming might of the invading US forces. Inspired by Kuribayashi's own book of correspondence, it's a complex attempt to grapple with Japan's warrior culture, depicting an army where honour rules and suicide is preferable to surrender. While the earlier film deconstructed an American war myth - the raising of the Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima - Letters tries to humanise a once-demonised enemy. Eastwood's ambition here is commendable and he creates an intimate and, at times, moving portrait of soldiers stoically preparing for death. Yet there's also something unconvincing and rather troubling about an American film-maker presuming to speak for the defeated side.

The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.