Admiral Yamamoto (1968)

Mifune as Isoroku Yamamoto, the cultured admiral who opposed the drift toward war and was then chosen to plan the attack on Pearl Harbor. The interest is in that contradiction: Mifune plays a man doing his duty with full knowledge of where it leads, especially once Midway turns the tide. Seiji Maruyama directs, with Eiji Tsuburaya's special effects for the naval battles. It pairs naturally with Japan's Longest Day as a view of the Pacific War from the Japanese command, and it rests on Mifune's restraint rather than his fury.