He is also in love with a lady, and there is a super-traditional "promise me you come back" -plotline, which felt endless. He is a lover of Russian culture (Tolstoy especially), and he is crushed that he is now forced to fight against Tolstoy's countrymen, people with whom he shares the same faith.
The main character of the film is a young teacher and an officer played by Aoi Teruhiko. The film starts with a Russian firing squad executing two Japanese, so this is at times very old-fashioned propaganda. As was the case in "Battle of the Japan Sea", the colonial ambitions of Japan are left unmentioned, and Japan is only going to war, because if Russia manages to annex Korea, they threaten Japan as well. We begin with the politicians, who see no other alternative, but to go to war with Russia. Whereas Masuda's "Battle Anthem" told the story of the battle in Tsushima Strait, which brought an end to the war, this film concentrates on the beginning part, and the bloody conflict in "Port Arthur". Both Nakadai and Mifune are present, but neither is playing Togo this time around. It gives you the historical background and the politics, but also a youthful protagonist (Aoi Teruhiko) and a sappy love -story. "Port Arthur" (203 kochi, 1980) is in many ways the fusion of the two other films. It was directed by Masuda Toshio, who helmed this movie three years prior. Mifune later reprised his role as famous naval officer Togo Heihachiro in "Battle Anthem" (Nihonkai daikasen: Umi yukaba, 1983), which told the narrative from the perspective of the young soldiers who fought in the war, but lacked proper contextualization.
The film painted the political context of the war nicely, but failed to create two-dimensional characters. Mifune and Nakadai previously starred in "Battle of the Japan Sea" (Nihonkai daikasen, 1969), a movie about the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).
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