Best Director nominee Clint Eastwood's charged companion piece to his "Flags of Our Fathers" is a poignant and impressive deconstruction of the World War II battle from the perspective of the Japanese forces. Ken Watanabe gives a commanding performance as Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi. The film was a Best Picture nominee and was coproduced by Eastwood and Steven Spielberg. Iris Yamashita's script was up for Best Original Screenplay. Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase.