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Japan's Longest Day (Kihachi Okamoto, 1967)
Topic Started: Jun 18 2015, 10:36 PM (213 Views)
Gylfi
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With my first pick, The Silence of the Sea, silence was used as a form of resistance. My next pick, Edge of Darkness, was about people choosing to fight against an occupying army, an aggressive form of resistance. And now with my third pick, Japan's Longest Day, we get to see a third kind of resistance, namely resistance against following orders and accepting a situation.

From an IMDB review: "What is a soldier, who has been told from first day of his enlistment that surrender is not only unacceptable but is treason, to do when he learns that his government, including his own military superiors, are going to surrender? This movie pulls no punches in showing what happened when that exact scenario occurred in Japan in the closing days of World War Two. The two words that can best describe how the Japanese soldiers must have felt are betrayal and despair. The movie further underscores the essential hypocrisy of the Japanese imperial leadership and the sudden realization that everything they had been spouting about the Bushido spirit was just hot air, mere hyperbole. As the movie so graphically shows, the junior Japanese officers who revered their generals simply could not accept what seemed to them a shameless repudiation of principles that they were told were sacrosanct. The movie is excellent for several reasons: first, it tells a compelling story; second, it has an all-star cast; third, it is structured as a documentary; fourth, the story is candidly and forthrightly portrayed; fifth, the movie has excellent continuity; sixth, it avoids becoming moralistic; and seventh, it educates the audience about a critical event in history."

The film was produced to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Toho Studios and is given careful direction by Okamoto Kihachi, a prestige Toho director not that well known in the United States. The cast includes a long list of familiar faces: Toshirō Mifune, Chisu Ryu, Takashi Shimura, Tatsuya Nakadai (narrating), Sô Yamamura, Jun Tazaki, Nobuo Nakamura and many others.

Hope you enjoy!
Letterboxd
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wba
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Was not a huge fan (though I did like it when I saw it, about 10 years ago). I guess this needs a rewatch. :sh:
To please the majority is the requirement of the Planet Cinema. As far as I'm concerned, I don't make a concession to viewers, these victims of life, who think that a film is made only for their enjoyment, and who know nothing about their own existence.

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