Lorelei: The Witch of the Pacific Ocean

Lorelei: The Witch of the Pacific Ocean is a 2005 Japanese Sci-fi War Drama film directed by Shinji Higuchi, in his feature directorial debut. The film is based on the book "Lorelei at the End of War", written by Harutoshi Fukui, and stars Kōji Yakusho, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Shinichi Tsutsumi and Toshirō Yanagiba. The film was released on March 5, 2005.
==Plot==
In the Summer of 1945, World War II is slowly coming to a close. The Japanese and Americans are fighting in the Pacific Ocean, but American subs are being taken out with the last thing that is audible over their radios being the "Witch's Song". Narrated to us by American Naval officer Eric Minott, it is explained that nobody knows that what's coming until they hear the song, with said sound being known by some American Naval commanders as "The Witch", but once they hear it, it is too late.
On August 6 of 1945, the city of Hiroshima is bombed with the first nuclear attack in world history. 
Naval Command Chief of Staff Ryokitsu Asakura asks Captain Masami Shinichi if he has read the book "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Once Masami responds that he does not remember who the lead character of the book was trying to actually kill, he introduces himself, and asks if he is aware of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Once he has established that Masami knows about the attack, he then asks the captain how long he has been shore-based, bringing up his nickname of "Captain Coward" due to his reluctance and outright refusal to send pilots on kamikaze missions. Masami then replies that this is because it is a waste of good war-ready young men, and that those young men are better suited for the battlefield and not for suicide missions. Asakura then shows Captain Masami the I-507, which has been given to the Japanese by Nazi Germany. This submarine has special abilities that will allow them to avoid the enemy and sink their ships. 
Masami then sets out on the I-507 with his crew to prevent another atomic attack on Japan, meeting up with his friend, Captain of Navigation, Toshiro Kizaki. After doing a dive drill, Captain Masami talks to his crew about their plan and that he will make sure they can get it done. Afterwards, private first class officers Kiyonaga Kikuo and Origasa Yukito, who are manned torpedo pilots walk amongst the sub once the announcement is over, and Kiyonaga looks up to the manned sub entry port, mentioning that he hates the fact that Captain Masami disapproves of kamikaze tactics. As Kiyonaga is about to be hit for insubordination due to the question he asks Chief Petty Officer Taguchi Tokutaro, Kizaki comes through to break it up. Origasa then asks what the purpose of the mini-sub is, but is told to return to his post.
Captain Masami then meets with Lieutenant Takasu Narumi, a man who boarded with the crew and knows about the the Lorelei system. He reveals to them what its purpose is, which is to track the enemy and allow for superior attacking power as well as outmaneuver their attacks. Back at the Imperial Navy Headquarters, Chief of Naval General Staff Narasaki Eitaro, along with other naval chiefs and directors discuss the I-507 leaving port. They ask where Asakura is, remarking that he has been a wild card since he fought in the South Pacific. Eitaro then tells the Director of Intelligence, Sankichi Ominato, that he must track him down and find out who is helping him.
Kizaki outlines their path to the ship carrying the next atomic bomb and to shut out other sea lanes. They decide it is time to test the Lorelei system, asking how good it is. Takasu then speaks up and mentions that the system is infallible, but that they must avoid the enemy at all costs. That night, they decide to give it a test with Origasa, having had snuck aboard the sub having to keep the girl in the sub from taking her own life. The sub engages the enemy and takes out two of their ships, but with it taking out the girl who controls the Lorelei system, losing their sonar map. Origasa then takes the unconscious girl to the onboard doctor, and he requests that he take out the enemy with the mini-sub. Captain Masami then refuses and Kizaki tells Origasa to go watch the girl as punishment for insubordination.
Sankichi then goes to Ambassador Nishimiya Sadamoto to ask where Asakura is, as he would know best since he studied with him in the US. While the two are talking, Nishimiya's wife comes with a letter from Asakura, saying that he resolves to commit hara-kiri.
Origasa brings the girl on the mini-sub some food, accidentally leaving a picture of him and his family on the floor. Origasa then asks Takasu, since he owned an ice cream parlor before, if he could make some ice cream for the girl on the mini-sub, while the girl dreams about her brother and being in a concentration camp where he was killed by the many tests one on the prisoners. Takasu obliges, with Origasa then bringing the girl, who woke up in a panic, the ice cream. As he leaves since she doesn't look like she wants it, she asks him about his family.
Masami, reading Crime and Punishment, reflects on what the book is about with Tokioka Matoi, the ship's doctor. Tokioka mentions that the person that Raskolnikov, the lead character of the novel, doesn't resolve to actually kill the loan shark, but God, as he had broke the Sixth Commandment and thus killed God within himself, killing himself at the same time. 
In the early morning hours of August 9th, the USAF Boxcar takes off from Tinian.
Later that morning, Origasa then finds the girl in the mini-sub hanging from the ladder, looking like she had committed suicide. She then asks him to leave the ship and go out on deck, to which Origasa then smuggles her outside. Captain Masami and Navigator Kizaki shows Masami his daughter's gift to him: a cat's cradle, which can be just a bunch of string, or anything you need it to be, as the girl, whose name is Paula, sings, resonating through the sub and lifting the crew's spirits. The two captains then discuss Origasa's punishment for bringing Paula outside of the ship. As Paula and Origasa talk about his home, it then starts raining. Another atom bomb is shown to be dropped on Nagasaki with Paula having another episode, this one greater than when they took out two US Naval ships.
As Paula rests with the doctor Masami and Origasa talk about her. Origasa asks why the captain keeps the keepsake from his wife, with Masami saying that he does not keep it as a memento of love, but one of regret due to him being a soldier first, husband second and dedicated more to his country rather than his wife.
Takasu, with a number of other high-ranking naval officers, engages in a mutiny. He then reveals to Masami that the entire point of them taking out the sub, as ordered by Asakura, was to give it over to the Americans, and let a third bomb be dropped on Tokyo. Asakura says this would burn out the root that is causing Japan's downfall, and led them into this war, allowing them to rebuild from the rubble. Once Origasa, who was not taken by any of the officers as he was scrubbing toilets, interferes, Taguchi then shoots Takasu and calls off the mutiny. Takasu then returns fire and is fatally wounded by another shot, but Paula is able to get where the Boxcar lifts off from, and they make their way over to Tinian. Asakura then takes his own life. Meanwhile, the Director of Intelligence goes to catch up with the Ambassador, only to find that he was murdered.
The Americans take the refusal to surrender Lorelei as a sign to bomb Tokyo, and so they ready the third bomb. The crew know the clock is ticking, and so they then let off anyone that wants to leave the ship. One of the men from the engine room, Chief Engineer Iwamura Shichigorō, then joins the Captain and helps them navigate to Tinian. As they head into enemy territory, Kiyonaga ends up dropping his baseball between the cracks and getting his hand stuck. They cannot eject the mini-sub due to this, but Captain Masami decides that he unfortunately must be sacrificed because this is a do or die situation. After a moment of silence, they then continue on their way, realizing that the best way to take out the ships while not sacrificing Lorelei in the process is to disable the ships rather than to fully destroy them.
While making their way around a bunch of torpedoes, one hits the ground underneath the sub, damaging the battery, which causes the main power to go offline. After realizing that the enemy is about to sink them, Toshiro gives up his own life to save the ship, using the cat's cradle his daughter gave him. This gets the sub back online, and once Paula says she can get over the pain that her psychic powers bring her due to the deaths of the men in the subs, they take out two subs that had been tracking them while they were offline. After the attack on the subs, Masami tells Origasa and Paula that they must go their own way and live life, saying that this is a war his generation started, but used Origasa's generation to fight it. He cuts the umbilical that keeps the two subs connected, and Paula sings as the two of them make their way back to Japan.
The I-507 then gets to the site, targets the Boxcar which has just taken off and has his crew fire at it, taking the plane down and sinking the bomb with it. They then dive as all of the American ships target them and fire. During the time that the attacks go on, Eric Minott begins narrating again and hears the Witch's Song for the last time. We then flash forward to current day, at which Minott is retired and is telling his narration to a Japanese man who is documenting the story. The man then shows Minott the picture of the crew taken earlier in the film, and Minott remarks that it's unbelievable that Paula was the witch, and that they took on the whole Navy to protect her. The man says it was not because of that, but that the crew wanted to ensure their people a future. The man then asks if he knows if the crew died afterward, to which Minott replies that he doesn't, but with how hard they were to take down beforehand that he couldn't believe that they would go down that easily. 
Minott then remarks on the man's watch (which Origasa was shown to be wearing, implying that this man is his and Paula's son), walking onto the beach and humming the Witch's Song.
==Cast==
*Koji Yakusho as Masami Shinichi
*Tsutsumi Shinichi as Ryokitsu Asakura
*Tsumabuki Satoshi as Origasa Yukito
*Yanagiba Toshiro as Toshiro Kizaki
*Yuu Kashii as Paula Atsuko Ebner
*Ishiguro Ken as Takasu Narumi
*KREVA as Komatsu Shunpei
*Jun Kumimura as Tokioka Matoi
*Ono Takehiko as Iwamura Shichigorō
*Sato Ryuuta as Kiyonaga Kikuo
*Pierre Taki as Taguchi Tokutarō
*Colter Allison as Lt. Eric Minott
**Gordon Wells as Retired Eric Minott
*Hashidzume Isao as Nishimya Sadamoto
*Ibu Masatō as Narasaki Eitaro
*Tsurumi Shingo as Sankichi Ominato
*Kamikawa Takaya as Writer (unnamed man on the beach)
Category:2005 films
Category:Japanese films
Category:War drama films
Category:Sci-Fi