My Thoughts on "Rail of the Star ☆"

 

(This is the North American VHS cover 📼 for Rail of the Star ☆.) 

 

I just go through watching, Rail of the Star ☆. I had in my Watch Later playlist on YouTube for almost two or three years. I had it in there for a long time. I was interested in watching it ever since I saw a promo for it on an ADV Films promo compilation video on YouTube, but I had been putting it off for so long. I just wasn't interested in the subject matter for a while to actually sit and watch it. But, now that I'm back into Japanese 🇯🇵 and Second World War history again, I was now in the right head space to actually watch it. Plus, it wanted to take it out of my Watch Later list, and reduce it even further. So, that watching and now reviewing this movie is something that I can cross off my to-do list.

Now, I'm sure most of you reading this probably have no idea what Rail of the Star ☆ even is, and if you have, it's only because you read the note above my review for Spirit of Wonder: Miss China's Ring, where I talked about it in length. I wrote that a couple of weeks before I actually watched Rail of the Star ☆, and I had no idea what the movie was actually like, and I was basing everything I said about it on what I had seen in that promo, and what I read about it on the Wikipedia page. That, or you saw STEVEM's video talking about, in which he emphasized how obscure this movie really is. 

 

(This is the Japanese poster 🇯🇵 for Rail of the Star ☆.)

 

This is a pretty difficult movie to find. It's not widely available on streaming, or on physical media like DVD 📀 or Blu-Ray 💿. The only physical release of this movie is the VHS 📼, but as you can imagine, it's well out of print, and is not easy to find. So, your best bet for watching this movie is how I did, watching it on YouTube. But, even then, the version that you can watch on YouTube is not very good quality. It's in 360p, on what looks to be a VHS rip 📼, and the audio cuts at the end. 

There is no English dub available, despite ADV being a dubbing company, you know, before they went under. If they did do an English dub for this movie, it's long gone. It's likely lost media. So, it's only available in Japanese audio with English subtitles. That's really the only way you can watch this movie without buying the VHS 📼 off of Amazon or eBay. I checked, and it's no longer available on Amazon, so if you're going to find the VHS release 📼, you'll probably find it on eBay.

Anyway, availability aside, what exactly is this movie? Well, Rail of the Star ☆ is a 1993 World War II anime film that tells the story of a girl ♀︎ named Chitose Kobayashi. She goes by a nickname, Chiko for most of the film, for this review, I'm going to be referring to her by her real name, Chitose. The movie is told in flashback, as the adult Chitose recounts her life living in Korea under Japanese rule 🇯🇵 as a child during the war and after the war. If you were unaware, Korea used to be belong to Japan 🇯🇵. 

 

 

(This is the flag of China under the Qing Dynasty.  This particular flag was used from 1889 to 1912, when the Qing Dynasty was overthrown by the Xinhai Revolution.)

 

 

For centuries, Korea had been a tributary of China (under the Qing Dynasty) until the First Sino-Japanese War 🇯🇵, in-which Japan 🇯🇵 defeated China, and ended its tributary relationship with Korea, so that they could greater influence over the country. Then, at the end of the 19th century, in the year 1897, Japan 🇯🇵 had turned Korea into a protectorate called the Korean Empire which would last until 1910, in-which Japan 🇯🇵 annexed Korea, and turned it into a colony of their steadily growing empire. They even renamed to it to Chōsen (朝鮮), which is the Japanese reading 🇯🇵 of the name, Joseon, the name of the last independent dynastic kingdom of Korea before the creation of the Korean Empire and the annexation by Japan 🇯🇵.

 

 

(These are the flags of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea, the last semi-independent dynastic kingdom of Korea prior to falling to Japanese influence 🇯🇵. The flag on top is the national flag, which used from 1883 to 1897 when the Korean Empire was established in its place, and the flag on the bottom is the royal flag, which was used from 1882 to 1907, two years before Japan 🇯🇵 officially annexed Korea.)

 

Okay, it wasn't that independent since it was a tributary state of Qing Dynasty China, and the entire First Sino-Japanese War 🇯🇵 was fought on Korean soil, with the Chinese probably strong-arming the Koreans into letting them deploy their military forces in their country to fight the Japanese 🇯🇵. But, it was much more independent than it was under Japanese influence 🇯🇵 as a protectorate or under direct Japanese rule 🇯🇵 as a colony.

 

(This is the flag of the Korean Empire, the short-lived Korean protectorate of the Empire of Japan 🇯🇵 that lasted from 1897 to 1910 when Japan 🇯🇵 formally annexed Korea.)

 

 

Korea would remain under Japanese rule 🇯🇵 for 35 years until 1945 when Japan 🇯🇵 lost World War II, and surrendered to the Allies. Korea was then split north-to-south along the 38th parallel by the United States 🇺🇸 and the Soviet Union ☭, with the USSR ☭ occupying the north, and the US 🇺🇸 occupying the south. These occupations would eventually pave the way for the creation of two new independent Korean states, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) or North Korea 🇰🇵, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) or South Korea 🇰🇷, which are the two states that still control the Korean Peninsula today. As you probably know if you're in anyway knowledgeable of 20th century history, you'll know that North Korea 🇰🇵 and South Korea 🇰🇷 had a war with each other in the early 1950s, called the Korean War 🇰🇵🇰🇷, where North Korea 🇰🇵 invaded South Korea 🇰🇷 in an attempt to reunify the peninsula under their rule. 

 

 

(These are the flags of North Korea 🇰🇵 and South Korea 🇰🇷. The one on top is the North Korean flag 🇰🇵 and the one on bottom is the South Korean flag 🇰🇷. The particular South Korean flag 🇰🇷 you see here is the one used from 1949 to 1984.)

North Korea 🇰🇵 had the backing of Soviet Union ☭ (who would end up “unofficially” directly joining the war to provide air support for the North Koreans 🇰🇵 and Chinese 🇨🇳), China 🇨🇳 (who would end up directly joining the war to bolster North Korea 🇰🇵's ground forces and help them beat back the South Korean and UN forces 🇰🇷🇺🇳), communist Mongolia 🇲🇳☭, and a few of the Soviet Union ☭'s client states in the Eastern Bloc, Bulgaria 🇧🇬, Czechoslovakia 🇨🇿, East Germany, Hungary 🇭🇺, Poland 🇵🇱, and Romania 🇷🇴.

South Korea 🇰🇷 had the backing of a UN military force 🇺🇳 called the United Nations Command 🇺🇳, which included countries as vast and diverse as the United States 🇺🇸, the United Kingdom 🇬🇧, Canada 🇨🇦, Australia 🇦🇺, New Zealand 🇳🇿, South Africa 🇿🇦 (under apartheid rule), France 🇫🇷, Turkey 🇹🇷, the Philippines 🇵🇭, Thailand 🇹🇭, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (under monarchic rule), Greece 🇬🇷 (under monarchic rule), Colombia 🇨🇴, Belgium 🇧🇪, the Netherlands 🇳🇱, and Luxembourg 🇱🇺. Other countries participated as well to provide medical support such as India 🇮🇳, Sweden 🇸🇪, Denmark 🇩🇰, Norway 🇳🇴, Italy 🇮🇹, and West Germany 🇩🇪. And others provided other support like Israel 🇮🇱, Taiwan 🇹🇼, Pakistan 🇵🇰, Uruguay 🇺🇾, El Salvador 🇸🇻, Spain 🇪🇸 (under fascist rule), and even Japan 🇯🇵. 

The war ended in 1953 in a stalemate with neither side able to gain victory, and reunify the peninsula under their respective government. An armistice was signed between the two sides, that is still in place today. But, it was not an actual peace agreement, meaning that war is still technically going on, even if there is no fighting between the two sides at this time. A demilitarized zone (DMZ) was set up after the war, which has kept the two Koreas 🇰🇵🇰🇷 separate ever since, and acts as the de facto border between the two.

 

(This is the flag of the Empire of Japan 🇯🇵. It was also the flag of post-war Japan 🇯🇵 until 1999.)

 

But anyway, none of those events would have occurred had not been for Japan 🇯🇵 increasing its influence over Korea in the late 19th century, and then annexing it at the beginning of the 20th century, and starting a war with China 🇹🇼, which was a republic under the rule of the nationalist Kuomintang Party (KMT). The KMT would remain power until 1949, when they lost the Chinese Civil War 🇨🇳🇹🇼 to the communists ☭ under Mao, and were forced to flee to the island of Taiwan after Mao and the victorious communists ☭ proclaimed the People's Republic of China 🇨🇳 on the mainland. Similar to the Korean War 🇰🇵🇰🇷 though, there was no formal peace agreement between the two sides of the Chinese Civil War 🇨🇳🇹🇼, meaning that the war is still technically ongoing, even if there is no actual fighting between the two sides at this time. It's a frozen conflict basically.

 

(These are the flags of the Kuomintang Party, or KMT, and the Chinese Communist Party ☭, or CCP ☭. The flag on the top is the KMT flag. It is also the naval jack of the Republic of the China 🇹🇼. The flag on the bottom is of course, the CCP flag ☭. The KMT and the CCP ☭ were the main belligerents of the Chinese Civil War 🇨🇳🇹🇼, or rather the Republic of China 🇹🇼 and the CCP ☭ were since the Republic of China 🇹🇼 was already established and the KMT were in control of it already before the civil war officially started. But, KMT were by extension and virtue of them being in control of the government one of the main belligerents of the civil war. They and the CCP ☭ were also main belligerents of the Second Sino-Japanese War 🇹🇼🇯🇵 in addition to the Republic of China 🇹🇼 itself.)

 

Taiwan also a Japanese colony 🇯🇵 since the late 19th century, but it was handed back to KMT China 🇹🇼 after World War II, and Taiwan would end up being the place where the KMT would have to set up shop. Taiwan is one of the last pieces of territory that the Republic of China 🇹🇼 government initially set up by the KMT still controls. It's pretty much a rump state in legal limbo over its status as an independent country. China 🇨🇳 insists Taiwan 🇹🇼 is not an independent country and is a part of their territory, while Taiwan 🇹🇼 insists that it is an independent country, and is not a part of China 🇨🇳. The international community has decided for the most part that Taiwan 🇹🇼 is a self-governing entity, and is not part of China 🇨🇳, but they do not recognize it as an independent country. This is due to the One China Policy, which every country in the world has, which stipulates that only one country can have the title of "China," and only one country can be recognized as "China." In other words, there can only be one China. 

 

(These are the flags of the People's Republic of China 🇨🇳 and the Republic of China 🇹🇼. The one on top is the PRC flag 🇨🇳, and the one on bottom is the ROC flag 🇹🇼.)

So, every country has had to pick one over the other, and most countries chose to recognize the People's Republic of China 🇨🇳 as China, and not the Republic of China 🇹🇼. They used to until 1971, when they switched to recognizing the People's Republic of China 🇨🇳 after the US 🇺🇸 established diplomatic relations with the PRC 🇨🇳. The ROC 🇹🇼 would end up losing its seat in the United Nations 🇺🇳 to the PRC 🇨🇳, meaning that currently, the ROC 🇹🇼 is not a UN member 🇺🇳.

Now, only 11 countries in the world recognize the ROC 🇹🇼, with most of them being small countries in South America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific with very little power or influence. The only European government that recognizes the ROC 🇹🇼 is the Holy See 🇻🇦, which governs Vatican City State🇻🇦. The PRC 🇨🇳 has tried everything it can to undermine the ROC 🇹🇼's diplomatic relations, and get more countries to recognize them over them.

The most recent country they managed to sway to their side was Nauru 🇳🇷, an Oceania country, which officially stopped recognizing the ROC 🇹🇼 after William Lai won the presidential election. William Lai AKA Lai Ching-te was the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)'s candidate, and the DPP is seen as a pro-Taiwanese independence party. The PRC 🇨🇳 doesn't like that, they don't like Lai Ching-te, so they convinced (or pressured) Nauru 🇳🇷 to drop its recognition of the ROC 🇹🇼 after Lai Ching-te won as a way of putting pressure on the president elect.

Despite there being people inside Taiwan 🇹🇼 that favor independence as well as people that favor reunification, the vast majority of Taiwanese 🇹🇼 just want the status quo to be maintained, even as China 🇨🇳 continues to try to undermine the status quo. The United States 🇺🇸 and the majority of the international community also support maintaining the status quo, and are against reunification, especially through military force. 

And they are against Taiwanese independence 🇹🇼 as they fear that a declaration of independence would be a provocation that could escalate the situation into full on conflict with China 🇨🇳. China 🇨🇳 has already stated that Taiwanese independence 🇹🇼 is a red line for them, and if Taiwan 🇹🇼 declares independence, that would mean war, as they would then try to invade Taiwan 🇹🇼 and topple the ROC government 🇹🇼 and bring the territory under their control. In other words, for the Chinese 🇨🇳, a Taiwanese declaration of independence 🇹🇼 would be a Taiwanese declaration of war 🇹🇼.

But, I'm way off topic with this. This is not about Chinese history 🇨🇳🇹🇼, this is about Japanese and Korean history 🇯🇵🇰🇵🇰🇷, even if they did sort of intertwine thanks to Manchuria and the Second Sino-Japanese War 🇹🇼🇯🇵. So, let's get back to the movie. The movie spans from 1940 to 1946, when Japan 🇯🇵 was at war with the Allies, and then after the war after Japan 🇯🇵 surrendered, and Korea was jointly occupied by the US 🇺🇸 and the USSR ☭.

An interesting thing about the film is that in addition to showing the Gregorian years and dates, it also shows the Showa dates. You see, before the war, and during the war, Japan 🇯🇵 had its own dating or calendar system where they would go by the year of the current emperor's reign. The emperor at the time was Emperor Hirohito, and his reign was referred to as the Showa era because he was Emperor Shōwa. While Japan 🇯🇵 still maintained this year/dating system or tradition after the war, they adopted a more westernized style of year counting and dating and calendar system as the country overall became more westernized. So, they went by the same years we did, but they also still had their own years by the years the emperor was on the throne.

In the decades after Hirohito's death in 1989, the emperor year dating system became less prevalent in Japanese society 🇯🇵 as most Japanese 🇯🇵 started using exclusively the Gregorian calendar and the western year/dating system. While the emperor years were reserved exclusively for government and royal functions. This is largely due to the emperor and the Japanese royal family 🇯🇵 becoming less prevalent and less important in Japanese people 🇯🇵's lives. You this isn't like the British royal family 🇬🇧, most Japanese 🇯🇵 don't care or pay attention to what the emperor or the rest of the royal family does. The current emperor by the way is Emperor Naruhito, or Emperor Reiwa, this is the Reiwa era.

But, Rail of the Star ☆ uses the emperor years as well as the conventional western years. Like, for example, when they show text on the screen saying that it's 1941 and the Pacific War begins, they show corresponding Showa date, in that case, Showa 16, or 昭和16年. And they do that through the entire movie, and the main character and narrator often uses them interchangeably. Sometimes, she'll say the western year and dates, other times, she'll use the Japanese year and dates 🇯🇵. Speaking of which...

The main character of the film, Chitose Kobayashi is basically this play actress who is performing in a stage play that is telling her story of her time in Japanese Korea 🇯🇵. This section of the film is set in what I can assume is the 1960s since Chitose is an adult, and doesn't appear to be that old, like she still looks pretty young like in her 30s. So, even though this is the present day within context of the story, it's not actually the present day for us.

While backstage, she sees a news report talking about a Japanese family 🇯🇵 that is reunited after decades of being split apart by the war and the Allied occupation of Korea. I mean, they don't say if the returning family members were from Korea or not, but I assume so since this whole movie is centered around Japanese Korea 🇯🇵. But either way, these family members are repatriated, and reunite with their family inside Japan 🇯🇵. This makes Chitose remember and reminisce about her own childhood living in Korea, and she says, "This easily could have been my family," when referring to the family on the TV 📺. And the movie shows her childhood in flashback, and she basically narrates the whole movie.

She talks about how her family lived in northern Korea, inside a town or city called Shin Gishu, which is known today as Sinŭiju, a city that's currently located in North Korea 🇰🇵, and was the city that was occupied in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GiG (the Individual Eleven arc), after North Korea 🇰🇵 was defeated in the Fourth World War, or "non-nuclear World War IV" as it's referred to as. She says that this city she lived in with her parents was along a stream called Ouryokukuo, which she says runs along the border with Manchuria. Now, I can only assume that what she's referring to is the Yalu River, which is only river or stream in northern Korea that runs along the border with Manchuria, or modern-day China 🇨🇳 (since Manchuria is now Chinese territory 🇨🇳). I tried looking up Ouryokukuo on Wikipedia, and I found nothing, so I'm assuming she's talking about the Yalu River.

That's the other thing about this movie. They use a lot of the outdated Japanese names for these places in Korea that are no longer used since Japan 🇯🇵 no longer controls Korea, and Korea now has two separate independent governments. The movie even begins with a disclaimer talking about how they use the names for these places that were used at the time, so the audience doesn't get confused or ask questions about why the characters don't use the modern name to describe a certain place. So, keep in that mind, as I go through this.

Chitose talks about her father, and how he ran a coal company 🪨 that operated in Korea. Which is sort of sus since the Japanese 🇯🇵 forced Korean men ♂︎ into working in the mines ⛏️ as forced labor to extract the coal 🪨 and raw earth minerals that could be found in northern Korea. So, a lot of her father's work force was probably Korean forced labor. Meaning that he was probably wasn't that great of a guy, and was complicit in a lot of terrible stuff. This was actually something I had got wrong in my predictions. I actually thought that Chitose's father was a high-ranking military officer, and that's how the family was able to live a life of luxury, but no. He's just the CEO of a coal company 🪨, and then he gets drafted. More on that later.

She, her parents, and her little sister, Michiyo "Miko" Kobayashi, visit a nearby town that she refers to as An Tong for recreation. I tried to figure what this An Tong town was, and what it was called by now, but I couldn't find anything when I searched the name on Wikipedia. The movie shows Chitose and her family having a good time, having a relatively peaceful life in Korea, even if Koreans didn't get to enjoy the kind of lifestyles that Japanese families 🇯🇵 like Chitose's did.

Korea was still a colony, the Koreans were a colonized people, and thus, the Japanese 🇯🇵 had all the power, and all the best jobs, best houses, and best living conditions. The Koreans were basically treated as second class citizens, and they didn’t have the same rights and privileges as the Japanese 🇯🇵 living on the peninsula. Chitose's family was able to live a life of privilege off the backs of an oppressed and enslaved people, who her government and her few countrymen viewed as inferior, and forcefully tried to integrate. The movie tackles this head-on, a lot more directly than I expected it to going in. There's a scene where we see a Korean boy ♂︎ being bullied by a trio of Japanese boys 🇯🇵♂︎ for his Korean identity.

Basically, this Korean boy ♂︎ used his Korean name, and these Japanese boys 🇯🇵♂︎ heard him, and started beating him up, in order to get him to use his Japanese name. They even taunt him by saying, "You must appreciate us for making you Japanese 🇯🇵." The Korean boy ♂︎ refuses, and responds, "I'd rather die than use a Japanese name 🇯🇵." Then, the Japanese boys 🇯🇵♂︎ just beat him up some more in response to him refusing to use his Japanese name 🇯🇵,  and then they toss into a river or a stream, or a lake, or a pond, I'm not sure what it was. It was a body of water 💦, and it was deep enough to where the Korean boy ♂︎ could easily have drowned. Chitose comes to his rescue, and she asks him why those other boys ♂︎ attacked him, and he tells her that it was because he was Korean, and he used his Korean name, which was illegal under the Japanese colonial administration 🇯🇵.

 

 

(This is a map showing the Japanese Empire 🇯🇵 at its largest and furthest extent. The parts in dark green are mainland Japan 🇯🇵, or Naichi, the parts in regular green are colonies, mandates, and leased territories, or Gaichi, and the parts in light green are puppet states and occupied territories, which made up the bulk of the Empire of Japan 🇯🇵's territory in World War II. The three colonies that Japan 🇯🇵 were of course Taiwan, Korea, and South Sakhalin, or Karafuto Prefecture as the Japanese 🇯🇵 referred to it as. 

Yes, Sakhalin is now Russian territory 🇷🇺, and was one for 30 years before 1905 when the Russian Empire 🇷🇺 was forced to hand over the southern half of the island to the Empire of Japan 🇯🇵 after losing the Russo-Japanese War 🇷🇺🇯🇵 to the Empire of Japan 🇯🇵. The Soviet Union ☭ would retake South Sakhalin in 1945 following their declaration of war on Japan 🇯🇵 and the invasion of Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. The Japanese 🇯🇵 also controlled all of the Kuril Islands, but they administered it as part of Naichi, as part of the mainland. They lost control of the islands to the Soviet Union ☭, who conquered them at the same time as they took South Sakhalin. But, despite that, and despite Sakhalin and the Kuril Island are under de facto control of the Russian Federation 🇷🇺, Japan 🇯🇵 still claims ownership over the southern most islands, Iturup AKA Etorofu, Kunashir, Shikotan, and Habomai Islands.)

 

 

You see, after Japan 🇯🇵 annexed Korea, and made into a colony of its empire, they began policy of Japanization 🇯🇵, which basically meant that the Japanese 🇯🇵 basically tried to erase Korean culture, language, and identity, and force all Koreans to adopt Japanese culture and customs, adopt the Japanese language, and use Japanese names. The Korean boy ♂︎ even tells her this, saying that Japan 🇯🇵 stole his country, stole his people's language, and stole their names. And he tells her that one day, the Korean people will reclaim their country from Japan 🇯🇵. That did end up happening, just not the Korean people's terms, but on the Soviets and Americans' terms 🇺🇸☭.

Chitose actually meets this same Korean boy ♂︎ again later on in the movie, in the year, 1945 (or Showa 20), the year that Japan 🇯🇵 lost the war. She sees him running somewhere with a man ♂︎ who I assume is his father, and she asks him where he's going. And he says that he's going into the mountains 🏔️ to take up arms against the Japanese 🇯🇵, since Japan 🇯🇵 is on its last legs about to lose the war at any moment. What better time to take up armed resistance against Japan 🇯🇵? They basically smelt blood 🩸 in the water 💦, and decided to go in for the kill while Japan 🇯🇵 was already down and wounded. Given that this was in northern Korea, I think it's safe to assume that this kid and his father were communists ☭, fighting on the side of the communist guerrillas ☭ who Kim Il-sung (the founder, first Supreme Leader, and Eternal President of North Korea 🇰🇵) was also apart of, and mainly of whom operated inside Manchuria until the end of World War II.

Japan 🇯🇵's cruel treatment and discrimination towards Koreans is also shown to us in the form of a character called Ohana. That's not her real name, but it's the name that was given to her under the Japanese colonial rule 🇯🇵. Chitose even asks her what her real name is, and she doesn't tell her. I actually thought that this character was Manchu after I saw the promo, and that was what I was predicting going in, that this character would be Manchu, and it would be through this character that we would see how Manchus were treated inside of the Japanese puppet state 🇯🇵, Manchukuo.

 

(This is the flag of Manchukuo, the Japanese puppet state 🇯🇵 set up in occupied Manchuria that lasted from 1932 to 1945 when it was finally dissolved following the Soviet invasion ☭.)

 

 

And given that, I assumed that the character was a boy ♂︎, since only Manchu males ♂︎ have that specific hair style with the mostly bald head, with the hair in the back done in a ponytail called a queue. But, no, the character is actually Korean, and is a girl ♀︎ and not a boy ♂︎. The outfit she's wearing for most of this film is a hanbok, a traditional Korean dress meant mainly for females ♀︎. I guess the thing that threw me off was the ponytail, and that huge forehead she has, which made it kind of look like she was bald in the front. We never see Manchukuo, or any Manchus in this film at any point. The majority of the movie (except the "present day" scenes) takes place in Korea, and we never see anything outside of that. Which is a bit disappointing since Manchukuo is such an interesting and under-explored topic of the Pacific War, but it is what it is. That is one prediction I got wrong about this movie.

 

(This is a map of Manchuria, or Manchukuo, showing the 1945 Soviet invasion ☭, which went by the name, Operation August Storm. All of those red arrows ⤵↩ indicate the Soviet advance ☭, which as you can extended into both Inner Mongolia, which was under the control of another Japanese puppet state 🇯🇵 called Mengjiang, and of course Korea, which was under direct Japanese rule 🇯🇵.)

 

 

It is interesting to look back at all the predictions or speculations I made about this movie before actually watching it, and seeing how of it I did get right. I got the fact that it was going to be told in flashback right, I got it right that the majority of the movie was going to primarily take place in Korea, I got it right that the movie was going to show the Soviet invasion of Manchuria ☭, which spilled over and extended into Korea since the Soviets ☭ occupied northern Korea after the war. I got it right that the movie was going to be mainly from the perspective of a child, and show how ignorant and naïve she was about her current living situation, and how her life of privilege was built off the back of a colonized people. And I got it right that the movie would tug at your heartstrings and would be a tearjerker 😭. The only thing I didn't get right was that there would be parts taking place in Manchukuo, and that there would be a Manchu character. Neither of which ended up being true.

Anyway, Ohana is basically a handmaiden for the Kobayashi family. We learn later on in the movie, like in the halfway point that she was working to provide her grandmother to pay for her medicine, since I guess she's bed-ridden and sick with something. But, then she's fired by Chitose's mother, after Chitose puts on an outfit that Ohana was in the middle of sewing 🧵, and had left the needle 🪡 inside, and the needle 🪡 gets stuck in her butt after she sits down.

Because the needle 🪡 was in the area of the outfit where the butt would be. Chitose has to be rushed to hospital after this, and after they painfully remove the needle 🪡 (because children weren't allowed to have that much anesthetic back then, and maybe aren't now), the doctor tell her mother that the needle 🪡 had penetrated her bone, and had that not acted as quickly as they did, it would have been fatal. So, her mother blames Ohana for her getting injured and almost dying, and decides to fire her.

But, part of her decision to fire her was racially or ethnically motivated, since Ohana was Korean. Being that she was Korean, and not Japanese 🇯🇵 made Chitose's mother's decision to fire her a lot easier. Even Chitose knows it, even if she doesn't say it out loud to her mother, or in her narration. But, she knows her mother fired her because she was Korean. As if that wasn't bad enough, when we see Ohana, she's basically forced to become a comfort woman ♀︎ (a euphemism for prostitute or sex slave) in order to make ends meet. All because Chitose's mother fired her.

She's the character you definitely feel the most sorry for in this entire movie (besides Miko of course), but luckily, she does survive the war, and the whole ordeal with the Soviet occupation ☭ since we see Ohana at one point during one of the "present day" scenes in Japan 🇯🇵, and she drops off some flowers 💐 for Chitose backstage to congratulate her on her performance in this autobiographical play, and to remind her of her. To let her know that she's still out there, in Japan 🇯🇵. The movie ends with Chitose trying to find her, and failing. Giving the movie quite a bittersweet ending.

But, let's back up a bit. Chitose's family is living a relatively peaceful and privileged life inside northern Korea, thanks to her father's job. But, that all changes, once the war begins after the Japanese 🇯🇵 attack Pearl Harbor. The movie has text 7 minutes in that states that the Pacific War (the second major theater of World War II) started in 1941, that 1941 is the start of the Pacific War, but that's a little bit in dispute.

Some historians argue that the Pacific War actually started in 1931 withe Mukden Incident and Japanese invasion of Manchuria 🇯🇵. Others argue that it started in 1937 with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War 🇹🇼🇯🇵. Few historians actually consider 1941 to be the beginning of the Pacific War. It's just the year that the US 🇺🇸 enters the Pacific War, and becomes a major belligerent within it. Either way, the war begins. Chitose's father is drafted, and her and family are forced to relocate to Heijō, better known today as Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea 🇰🇵.

But, don't worry, her father comes back because he got sick while on the battlefield, and was discharged after being hospitalized. They never clearly say what he was sick with that got him so down that he had to be hospitalized and then discharged from military service, but I guess it wasn't that bad to where he was able to recover. It couldn't have been any worse than what his second daughter, Miko got. While the father was away, Miko contracted typhoid, and is placed in quarantine. She doesn't make it, and dies from the disease. Her body is then cremated 🔥 and her ashes are brought home to the family, who all cry 😭 and mourn her death, building a shrine to remember her by. 

 

(This is the flag of the Soviet Union ☭. This particular flag was used from 1936 to 1955. So, this was the fact that the Soviets ☭ used for the entirety of World War II, and the entirety of the Korean War 🇰🇵🇰🇷.)

 

And then, after Chitose's father returns, Japan 🇯🇵 loses the war, and surrenders to the Allies. The movie actually shows the family listening to the radio broadcast 📻 of Emperor Hirohito's speech announcing Japan 🇯🇵's capitulation, and the movie actually uses the real audio from that speech. Then, the radio 📻 stops broadcasting Japanese stations 🇯🇵 and Japanese programming 🇯🇵, and starts broadcasting Korean stations and Korean programming, and that's when the Soviets ☭ roll in. That's when Chitose's family's situation goes from bad to worse. The Soviets ☭ and their Korean collaborators begin targeting the Japanese community 🇯🇵 still left on the peninsula in their occupied zone, marginalizing and discriminating against them, and arresting anyone who worked in the Japanese police and military 🇯🇵. Meaning that Chitose's father is now a target.

 

 

(This is the flag of the United States 🇺🇸. This particular flag was used from 1912 to 1959. This is when the flag only had 48 stars ★, meaning that Hawaii and Alaska had become states yet, despite them both being US territories 🇺🇸. This flag was adopted after Arizona and New Mexico, which is why it holds significance to me, and it was the longest flag in use besides the current one we use now with 50 stars ★. So, this was the flag the US 🇺🇸 for World War I, the Interwar period, World War II, and the Korean War 🇰🇵🇰🇷.)

 

So, her family begin talks about of fleeing northern Korea, and crossing the 38th parallel to the American occupied zone 🇺🇸 in the south, since they'll not only have better chance at survival, but they'll also have a better chance at being repatriated to Japan 🇯🇵. So, they pack their bags 💼, and begin their long trip to the 38th parallel, only one problem though. Chitose doesn't want to leave her parents behind.

You see, the initial plan was for the grandparents and the aunt to take Chitose with them to 38th parallel, to the American occupation zone 🇺🇸, and then get repatriated to Japan 🇯🇵, while the parents stayed and cared for the remaining Japanese 🇯🇵 still left in northern Korea under the Soviet occupation ☭. But, with Chitose refusing to leave without her parents, the plan changes. The parents decide to keep Chitose with them, and just let the aunt and the grandparents leave without them. The aunt and the grandparents agree to this, and leave.

But, it's not long until Chitose and her parents also have to leave. As soon as the aunt and the grandparents leave, the Kobayashi family house gets raided and searched by a Korean communist ☭ and a couple of Soviet soldiers ☭. Chitose's father had to burn the family photos 🔥, including those of the deceased daughter, Miko, in order to avoid suspicion from the Soviet authorities ☭. And despite telling them that he wasn't in the military, they still raid and search the house. They evict them from their home, and they're forced to relocate to a shelter for other Japanese 🇯🇵 still left inside northern Korea. So, they burned the only photos they had left of Miko for nothing. They could've at least have kept the one to have at least one photo to remember her by. But, at least they take her ashes with them when they finally leave.

Speaking of which, after they get evicted from their home, and relocate to this shelter, that's when they finally decide to make their escape to the 38th parallel. They finally leave in 1946 (Showa 21). They travel by train at first, but then they're stopped when the Soviets ☭ search the train, and tell them to get off of it. Then, they travel by foot, and while they're okay at first, they eventually get lost, and everyone starts losing hope that they'll actually make it out of there. 

That's when Chitose comes up with the idea to use the North Star to navigate their way down to the 38th parallel, since her father told her that the North Star always stays in one place, and can be used for directions. I assume that this is why the movie's called Rail of the Star ☆, the fact that they traveled by railway, and then used the North Star for directions. In fact, that's exactly why they called it that, Chitose even says so in her narration. I actually thought for the longest time before watching this movie that the title was in reference to the Soviet Union ☭ and communism ☭.

Like, the red star ☆ is one of the main symbols of the Soviet Union ☭ and of communism ☭ as a whole. And I thought the title, Rail of the Star ☆ was referring to how the Soviets ☭ occupied northern Korea after winning the Soviet-Japanese War ☭🇯🇵 against Japan 🇯🇵, and it had something to do with railroads. I was right about the railway part, but not about the Soviet ☭ or the communist part ☭. The other half of the title is actually referring to the North Star and how Chitose had a special connection to it because her dad told her a story about it. 

 

 

 

 (This is a screenshot from Rail of the Star ☆ from the moment when Chitose figures out to use the North Star find to their way to the 38th Parallel. This is when the adult Chitose encapsulates the message of the movie, and meaning behind the title.)

Eventually, they do make it to 38th parallel, thanks to the help of a Korean man ♂︎ who inexplicably decides to help these Japanese refugees 🇯🇵, and they all get get repatriated back to Japan 🇯🇵, where they all live happily ever after...for the most part. We never see Chitose's parents in the present day, so, they're either dead or they're still alive, but living somewhere else. Why didn't they show up to support their daughter's play?

The movie really isn't as slice of life as I was expecting it would be. I mean, I knew that it would be a tearjerker 😭 and I knew that it would tug at the heartstrings (it is a historical war drama after all), but I also expected to be more slice of life, and kind of be more light-hearted, at least at the beginning before we really started getting into the dark stuff, before it really started getting sad 😢. Like, I expected to see more of Chitose having fun, going to school, playing with other kids, and just generally having a normal life before the war really started to creep into her and her family's lives.

But no, the movie's not really like that. The movie gets straight into the dark stuff pretty quickly. Like, we really only have a couple of scenes at the beginning before the war truly begins, and truly begins to affect the lives of the Kobayashi family, and then it all goes downhill from there. We start seeing the war have a greater and greater effect on the lives of this family, and we see them have one tragedy after the other. Whether it was the father being conscripted, the little sister dying, Chitose getting severely injured, Ohana getting blamed for and fired over Chitose's injury, the father coming back, only for Japan 🇯🇵 to surrender and for the Soviets ☭ to roll in and start occupying the north, the family getting evicted from their home by the new occupational authority, and making their harrowing journey to the south. The movie wastes no time in getting to the sad stuff 😢. That's not a complaint or a criticism, but it's an observation.

The movie's not really that violent or action-packed. Even though, this is a war movie, we don't see a lot of war. We just see how the war affects the people back home, and on top of that, we're seeing it all through the eyes of a young child, a pretty sheltered and privileged and pampered child. We don't see any of the father's military service. We don't see where he was deployed to, and we don't see what he did. 

So, don't go into the movie expecting to see any big battles, or any blood 🩸 because there isn't any. This isn't Saving Private Ryan, or Hacksaw Ridge, or Band of Brothers, or The Pacific, or Flags of our Fathers 🇺🇸, or Letters from Iwo Jima. It's also not Graveyard of the Fireflies, which I'm sure is a movie that this movie is often compared to be. This movie's not where near as dark and depressing as Graveyard of the Fireflies, at least from what I've heard about it.

Most of the violence that does occur in this movie happens off screen. I didn't much of an action movie, I knew it was going to be a drama and I knew it was going to be more of a children's film, so I wasn't disappointed. I will say that it is more of a children's film than I was expecting it to, and that's mainly due to the lack of on-screen violence despite the dark subject matter. This the kind of war movie that you could show to your kids, and not have them be traumatized by seeing any gratuitous violence that they're probably a bit too young to be seeing. I wouldn't be surprised if this was kind of movie that they showed in classrooms for history lessons back in Japan 🇯🇵.

It is interesting to see how the war affects the lives of Chitose and her family in this movie, in the different ways that it affects their lives. At first, it's small, with Chitose not getting the backpack 🎒 that she wanted and getting a cheaper and more drab one due to the war taking up all the money 💵 and resources of the country. Then, it escalates with the father being drafted. Then, we see glimpses into the dark side of the Japanese colonial rule over Korea 🇯🇵 with the Korean boy ♂︎ who gets bullied for using a Korean name and then decides to be a resistance fighter, and Ohana getting fired after Chitose injures herself with that sewing needle 🪡. The father does return, which is the one silver lining of the war.

Then, we hear the adult members of the family talking about how Osaka was bombed, and the mother worries about Korea being next, which I'm sure was a real fear for any Japanese person 🇯🇵 living in the colonies or occupied territories. Then, we see Chitose's aunt, Aunt Yōko being trained with a wooden rifle, which I believe is in reference to how Japan 🇯🇵 was forcing kids and young women ♀︎ to do military training in order to defend the nation from an Allied invasion. Remember, before the atomic bomb ☢️, the conventional wisdom was that the next step of the war was going to be a full-scale Allied invasion of the Japanese archipelago 🇯🇵🗾, the Japanese home islands 🇯🇵🗾 as they were called or mainland Japan 🇯🇵 too.

The US military 🇺🇸 had planned it out, and were gearing up for it. That's what the Battle of Okinawa was about. The US 🇺🇸 wanted Okinawa to use as a staging ground to carry out the amphibious assault on Japan 🇯🇵 proper, which had gone under the name, Operation Downfall, and was projected to be the largest amphibious operation of the entire war, dwarfing D-Day by a huge margin. But, after the US 🇺🇸 dropped two atomic bombs ☢️ on the Japanese cities 🇯🇵, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and after the USSR ☭ declared war on Japan 🇯🇵 and invaded and occupied Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, and Korea, Japan 🇯🇵 decided to surrender, and Operation Downfall was officially canceled.

Historians still debate which of the two contributed the most to Japan 🇯🇵's decision to surrender, the atomic bombings ☢️ or the Soviet entry into the war ☭. Some historians say the Soviet declaration of war ☭, and the invasion and occupation of Japan 🇯🇵's puppet states and colonial holdings in Northeast Asia played a bigger role in Japan 🇯🇵's decision to surrender, and that atomic bombings ☢️ of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were unnecessary and not worth it. While other historians argue the atomic bombings ☢️ played a huge role in making Japan 🇯🇵 surrender, and that the Soviet invasion of Manchuria ☭'s role is overplayed by those opposing historians. I think it was a combination of both, but I do lean more towards the Soviets ☭ being the main reason why Japan 🇯🇵 surrendered.

Why? Because the Soviet Union ☭ and the Empire of Japan 🇯🇵 had a non-aggression pact with each other after the violent border clashes in the 30s. Japan 🇯🇵 was humiliated in those border clashes, got its nose bloody 🩸, and decided to enter a non-aggression pact with the USSR ☭ to avoid having to fight them anymore again, and then just focus the rest of the war on trying to conquer Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Something that was called "Southern Expansion Doctrine," or Nanshin-ron (南進論). The Japanese 🇯🇵 had ended their attempt to expand northward and take parts of Siberia, which was called "Northern Expansion Doctrine," or Hokushin-ron (北進論). And so, the Soviet Union ☭ stayed neutral for most of the Pacific War. 

 

(These are maps showing Japan 🇯🇵's conflicting political doctrines to expand their territory and their sphere of influence, Hokushin-ron and Nanshin-ron. The map on top is the map showing Hokushin-ron and the map on the bottom is the map showing Nanshin-ron. Hokushin-ron was Northern Expansion Doctrine, meaning that the Empire of Japan 🇯🇵 wanted to expand their territory and sphere of influence into North Asia, in Siberia, taking territory away from the Soviet Union ☭. The doctrine stated that Manchuria and Siberia were within Japan 🇯🇵's sphere of influence. Its origins trace back to the Russian Civil War 🇷🇺, when Japan 🇯🇵 joined the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War 🇷🇺, and specifically joined the Siberian Intervention. Japan 🇯🇵's main motive for sending troops into Siberia during the Russian Civil War 🇷🇺 was to protect Japan 🇯🇵 from any future Russian threat 🇷🇺 by creating a buffer state within Siberia. 

Remember, Russia 🇷🇺 had historically been an enemy of Japan 🇯🇵. They fought a war against each other when the Russian Empire 🇷🇺 was still around called the Russo-Japanese War 🇷🇺🇯🇵 in the mid-1900s, between the years 1904 to 1905. And now that the Russian Empire 🇷🇺 had fallen to two different revolutions during World War I, and the Bolsheviks had taken control and turned Russia into a communist state ☭, which would eventually become the Soviet Union ☭, Japan 🇯🇵 felt threatened. They felt as if the new communist Russia ☭ would threaten their territorial holdings in South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. And of course, spread communism ☭ to Japan 🇯🇵 itself. So, Russia would continue to an adversary and an enemy to Japan 🇯🇵. In fact, the Japanese 🇯🇵 considered Russia to an even bigger threat now that it had gone communist ☭ and was now the Soviet Union ☭. 

So, you can see why Japan 🇯🇵 saw it as a national security priority to join the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War 🇷🇺 to break off a piece of Siberia to form a buffer state to separate them from the new Bolshevik state. But, while Japan 🇯🇵 was stationed in Siberia during the Russian Civil War 🇷🇺, they got the idea to make Siberia a part of their sphere of influence, and to permanently occupy it east of Lake Baikal. That's when Hokushin-ron was born. But, according to the map, it says that Japan 🇯🇵 wanted to expand beyond Lake Baikal, into Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Central Siberia. It also says that they did also want to take Mongolia 🇲🇳, which explains why Mongolia 🇲🇳 got directly involved in the border conflict between Japan 🇯🇵 and the Soviet Union ☭ from 1932 to 1939, and why they also participated in the Soviet-Japanese War ☭🇯🇵 in 1945. Japan 🇯🇵 did have ambitions of taking Mongolia 🇲🇳 as well, if not the whole country, then parts of it at the very least. So, I'm not sure.

They also had ambitions of taking northern Sakhalin as well to have the entire island to themselves, rather than having to share it with the Russians 🇷🇺 and then the Soviets ☭. Supporters of Hokushin-ron were referred to as the Strike North Group. The Imperial Japanese Army 🇯🇵 favored northern expansion into Siberia, so a lot of the people in the Strike North Group were in the Army. But, following their devastating and humiliating defeat to the Soviets ☭ and the Mongolians 🇲🇳 in the border conflicts in the 1930s, and the signing of a non-aggression pact between Japan 🇯🇵 and the Soviet Union ☭, Japan 🇯🇵 ended its attempts to expand northward into Siberia. 

That's when Nanshin-ron, or Southern Expansion Doctrine was chosen, and the Japanese 🇯🇵 expanded their empire and sphere of influence southwards into Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The Imperial Japanese Navy 🇯🇵 favored southern expansion into Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and as you can see, the Navy ultimately won out by getting their preferred doctrine. The main goal of southern expansion was to secure natural resources for the Japanese Empire 🇯🇵 from these European Southeast Asian colonies, cut off supply routes to China 🇹🇼 since Japan 🇯🇵 was still fighting a war against China 🇹🇼, and neutralize any Allied military presence in the Pacific. That's why the Philippines 🇵🇭 was targeted because it was one of a few footholds the United States 🇺🇸 had to have a military presence in the Pacific. Remember, the Philippines 🇵🇭 used to be a US territory 🇺🇸 during this time. It was a commonwealth, just like how Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 is today.)

 

This is also meant that the Japanese 🇯🇵 did not assist Nazi Germany and the other European Axis countries in their invasion of the Soviet Union ☭ called Operation Barbarossa, despite Japan 🇯🇵 signing the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy and being apart of the Axis Powers. As the war went on, and as it got worse for Japan 🇯🇵, the Japanese leadership 🇯🇵 was hoping that the Soviet Union ☭ would act as a neutral mediator in peace negotiations, so that Japan 🇯🇵 would get more favorable terms, and would not have to give up as much territory, or lose their emperor, among other things. 

So, when the USSR ☭ declared war on Japan 🇯🇵, it came as a shock and an unwanted surprise to the Japanese leadership 🇯🇵 because now their plans to keep fighting to the bitter end, and then sue for peace, and getting favorable terms within the peace negotiations with the help of a neutral third party were ruined. So, as soon as the Soviets ☭ crossed into Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, and Korea and devastated their forces in those areas, the Japanese 🇯🇵 just gave up, and surrendered.

Had the Soviets ☭ never entered the war in the Asia-Pacific, it is likely that Japan 🇯🇵 would not have surrendered when they did, and would've kept fighting on, even after being hit with two atomic bombs ☢️. Meaning that Operation Downfall would've had to have moved forward. Thank god for the Soviets ☭. The Soviets ☭ did a lot of bad stuff during their history, and during World War II specifically, but this was one of the few good things they did. Declaring war on Japan 🇯🇵, and making the Japanese 🇯🇵 finally throw in the towel and surrender. Bringing World War II to an end without a full-scale Allied invasion of the Japanese archipelago 🇯🇵🗾, which would have been brutal and killed millions of people on both sides.

The Japanese 🇯🇵 were planning to put a stiff resistance against the Allies had they gone through with Operation Downfall, much stiffer than even the resistance than they put up on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. They were even planning on getting the women ♀︎ and the children involved, having them training with wooden rifles, learning how to use bayonets, and even how to use sharpened bamboo sticks 🎋 as weapons to stab an Allied marine or soldier with. 

That's probably what the scene with the aunt is about. But, was this sort of thing done in Korea? I really don't know. I was always under the impression that this sort of only happened in mainland Japan 🇯🇵 since that would be the place that would actually be attacked, and thus would need to have the fiercest resistance. This is something you'd have to ask a historian who's familiar with this time period and this part of the world because I don't have the answer.

I actually didn't even know that she was the aunt until they literally said that was she the aunt. I initially thought that maybe she was a friend of Chitose, or an older sister, or a cousin, but no, she's her aunt. I couldn't tell because of how young she compared to the mom. It was actually kind of hard to tell the ages of some of the characters in this movie. It was even a bit to tell the gender of at least one of the characters, like I said, Ohana, who I not only thought was a boy ♂︎ until they said that she was a girl ♀︎, but also thought that she was a Manchu, rather than a Korean, which she actually is.

The movie is actually based on a book 📖, an autobiography, and Chitose Kobayashi is a real person who did exist. This was yet another thing I had gotten wrong about this movie. I thought Chitose Kobayashi was a fictional character, and that the whole story was a work of fiction. I basically thought the movie was historical fiction similar to Titanic or Pearl Harbor or A Gentleman in Moscow, where it's about a real historical event, a real historical time period, but it mainly focuses on fictional characters while peppering in a few real historical figures here and there.

But no, this movie is based on a true story, it was about a real person, and something close to the events of this film did actually happen. Being that this is a film, I'm sure they've changed things or embellished certain for dramatic effect or for creative license. To be honest, I really don't know how historically accurate this movie is, or what the real Chitose Kobayashi thought of it, if she was even still alive by the time this movie came out back in 1993. This is something you'd have to ask a historian who's an expert on the Pacific War, or on the Empire of Japan 🇯🇵, or on the Japanese colonial period of Korea 🇯🇵.

But, I did still really like this movie. I do think this is a good movie, and I do think it's a worth a watch, at least once, especially if you're a huge Pacific War buff, or a Japanese history buff 🇯🇵, or Korean history 🇰🇷🇰🇵, or just Asian history buff. Or if you're just a fan of really sappy dramas that tug at your heartstrings and try to make you cry 😭 every chance they get. I do have problems with the animation though. The animation is very limited, and there are moments  when characters' mouths won't move when they talk or make sounds, the characters is very limited and choppy, and when the facial expressions just aren't there, like they aren't cutting it.

This was a made-for-TV movie. It was produced by TV Tokyo, and was animated by Madhouse to commemorate the 30th anniversary of something called the Japanese Movie Center 🇯🇵, something that I can't find on DuckDuckGo, and doesn't have a Wikipedia page. So, they clearly had a smaller budget 💴 for this movie, which is why the animation isn't as good as it could be if more money 💴 was poured into it. Besides that, it's a pretty good movie. Give it a watch if you're interested and if you can find it. As I said, it's available to watch for free on YouTube, but I have no idea how long it will stay up. It could get taken down for copyright, so I really don't know.

 

(This is yet another poster for Rail of the Star ☆.  It's actually thumbnail for the version that I watched on YouTube for this review.)

 

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This is the ADV Films promo compilation video that I saw the promo for this movie in. It's the very first one: