History often repeats itself in the most interesting ways. In 1945, principal members of the Japanese government signed an agreement for total surrender of the country's armed forces to the United States atop the famed USS Missouri battleship, also known as the "Mighty Mo." Sixty-seven years later, audiences in Japan will see popular actor Tadanobu Asano stand on that same vessel — in the Hollywood action flick "Battleship."
Directed by Peter Berg ("Friday Night Lights," "Hancock"), "Battleship" the movie was inspired by the American board game of the same name. Like Monopoly, the Battleship game has been around for decades (in one form or another since before World War I) and has survived an onslaught of video arcades, game consoles and the all-consuming social-networking boom. Kids still play it (though obviously more in the United States than in Japan) and many adults over 40 can remember a time when the game provided many an ideal escape from a rainy afternoon.
Unmentioned in the production notes, however, "Battleship" the movie also pays tribute to last year's U.S.-Japan military collaboration "Operation Tomodachi" (tomodachi means friend in Japanese), in which the U.S. Armed Forces came over to help the Self-Defense Forces working to clean up after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Asano plays a naval captain who teams up with an irascible U.S. Navy lieutenant (played by 31-year-old Taylor Kitsch) to fight foes from outer space. The pair don't exactly start off on the right foot, but by the end of the film they forge a strong bond.