Industrialization of Japan In the mid-19th century, Japan was forced to open its borders and trade with other countries. In Japan itself, divided into warring principalities, this was treated with indignation, since it was characteristic of traditional Japanese thinking to regard the Japanese as the best people in the world and everyone else as barbarians. However, time has set new challenges for the country. Five members of the Choshu clan decide to go to England to study Western technologies and apply them to their homeland. However, once in England and amazed at its technological development, they realize that it is not enough to adopt technology. It is also necessary to unite the country. With this thought, they return home and with the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, occupy key posts in the country, contributing to its modernization.
Despite the Japanese admiration for the English “barbarian civilization”, this very civilization is not always shown in the film from a good side. The shortcomings of the bourgeois world, in which poverty reigns and many people live in slums, are shown episodicly, but very straightforwardly. What are the words of an English prostitute who laughs in response to the words of her Japanese client that England is a civilized country? Where is civilization here, she asks, if it does not always have something to eat?
Five enthusiasts from the Principality of Choshu, who set out to learn, embody a young dream of a strong and indivisible Japan. They are the first to realize that the only way to build a powerful army and navy is to first create a powerful state, not torn apart by internecine wars. However, the reality in Japan is far from their aspirations. For a trip to England, if anyone learns about it, they face the death penalty. In England, they learn to build railways and ships, and begin to work in the lowest position, gradually learning all managerial skills. Over time, they become outstanding technologists, able to independently set up these industries in Japan.
The Five of Choshu is a vibrant historical film that recreates 19th-century England scenery. This is a story about the emergence of a new Japan and the lives of key people who contributed to it. At the same time, it shows the ambiguous evolution of the Japanese attitude towards the rest of the world. At first they want to drive the barbarians from their land and are unanimous in their decision to simply kill them. Then they realize that this is not the way, and decide to learn the barbarians. Then, having built a strong navy and army, they reassert their nation’s superiority over others decades later. This is the historical truth of Japan, and the creators of the film “Five from Choshu” decided not to depart from it, without making any assessments.
8 out of 10