Director Eiichiro Hasumi's Umizaru has been touted as the Japanese version of Top Gun, using emergency rescue divers in exchange for pilots. Packing in the Japanese audiences who thirsted for a cool homegrown summer blockbuster it does indeed have similarities to that 80s Hollywood Air-Force recruitment flick via ostentatious camera and dolly moves, long lens shots, and a general slick visual palette. But there is one important distinction that separates Umizaru from its counterpart: it isn't jingoistic.The plot is a simple affair about 14 young men who want to be a part of the Japanese Coast Guard's elite team of salvage and rescue divers. This work is dangerous, most certainly involves exhuming the dead from sunken ships, and is relatively unknown - if not totally unappreciated - by the general public. The film charts the young men's brutal 50-day training period run by the strict and haunted veteran diver Minamoto (Tatsuya Fuji). As part of the training, all of the 14 young men are paired with a 'buddy' during training and are responsible for each other, at all times.
