The White Tiger Battalion (1986)
Original title: 白虎隊
The White Tiger Battalion is a 1986 Japanese-language history movie directed by Buichi Saitō, with a running time of 4h 44m. It stars Morio Kazama, Hisaya Morishige and Hashinosuke Nakamura.
The Byakkotai was part of Aizu’s four-unit military, set up in the domain’s drive to finalize its military modernization, in the wake of the Battle of Toba-Fushimi. The other three units were Genbutai, Seiryūtai, and Suzakutai. Each of the four was named after the protecting gods of compass directions. Byakkotai was meant to be a reserve unit, as it was composed of the young teenage 16 to 17 year old sons of Aizu samurai in a group of around 350, who fought in the Boshin War (1868, 1869).