For a home-grown Japanese war movie, Yamamoto Isoroku (2011) is perhaps the most neutral, and historically accurate of Japanese movies. For once, it actually contains few historical biases, and portrays both the social and historical impacts in the way the Japan turned to the decision to wage war.
Though subtle, the movie makes reference to the Boshin War, a civil war in Japan that greatly divided the big families into two main camps: pro-Shogun and pro-Emperor between 1868-1869. Yamamoto belonging to the Nagato clan, clear rivalries exist and continued into early WWII.
Civilian life, while fairly quickly glossed over, shows the impact and the growth of patriotic nationalism, and politically motivated newspapers that ride on the wave of popularity. It is only when the war begins to turn for the bad (post 1944) does the public begin to realize the impact of the war, and how bad it is going for them - the war in Manchuria being a far away war that many do not feel the impact.
If anything, the movie tries to steer away from the typical politically "expected", and while it is rather muted, aims to show the person whom Yamamoto was, rather than describe the war itself.
I think if you want a politically motivated movie of self- flagellation, there are other non-Japanese movies out there that will conform to pre-made opinions (such as a - but if you're looking for a biography in rather muted and neutral terms that simply show the perspective of how things were, then this movie is surprisingly very good, and well deserving a watch.
