Critics might be praising Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken in the U.S., but Japanese politicians are not happy about the World War II drama. There is even a movement to get the Universal film banned from the country.
The film tells the story of Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic athlete who was a Prisoner of War in Japan. His plane crashed and only he and the pilot survived. They were rescued by a Japanese warship after 47 days.
In the book the film is based on, he recalls the harsh treatment he faced from Mutsuhiro Watanabe, including an incident where he was punched in the stomach while being forced to hold a piece of wood over his head. He also accused the Japanese of cannibalism and undergoing medical experiments. According to The Guardian, Watanabe made Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s list of 40 most-wanted Japanese war criminals.
Japanese nationalists are angry over what Zamperini accused his captors of doing to him.
“It's pure fabrication,” Hiromichi Moteki, secretary general of the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact, told The Telegraph. “If there is no verification of the things he said, then anyone can make such claims. This movie has no credibility and is immoral.”
The Telegraph notes that others have taken to social media to denounce the film and some even started a petition to get Jolie to stop the film’s release.
Unbroken, which stars Jack O’Connell as Zamperini, will be released on Christmas Day in the U.S. The film made the AFI Top 10 movies for 2014.
image courtesy of Peter West/ACE/INFphoto.com