Natto Wada Movies

The 18th Olympiad was the first Games event held in Asia; Tokyo had been scheduled to host in 1940, but that Olympiad was canceled because of the war. Japan was determined not only to be a good host, but also to provide a record of the games to rival that of Leni Riefenstahl's legendary Olympia. Respected filmmaker Kon Ichikawa (The Harp of Burma, Fires on the Plain) and an army of technicians recorded the games in widescreen images, the most striking occurring near the beginning of the film, as a runner with the Olympic torch is shown in long shot with the sunlit Mt. Fuji in the background. Ichikawa offers stylistic touches to emphasize certain aspects of the athletes' struggle to achieve: slow-motion, amplified sound, extreme close-ups, and still photos in black-and-white. The chronological coverage, which reveals that many days of competition were hampered by rain, includes a wide variety of sports, from track and field events to gymnastics, weightlifting, wrestling, boxing, fencing, judo, shooting, cycling, equestrian events, soccer, field hockey, volleyball, canoeing, rowing, sailing, walking, and the pentathlon. Spectators cheer enthusiastically for their country's athletes, and there is one memorable shot of the press room, with hundreds of typewriters clattering away. Ichikawa devotes the film's longest segment to the final event, the marathon. Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia, a relentless runner whose technique is examined in slow motion, won the gold, pulling away from the competition with apparent ease. The coverage is balanced; when a Japanese athlete wins a medal, it's noted but not dwelled upon. Originally released at nearly three hours, Tokyo Olympiad was shamelessly edited for U.S. release to half that length, with insipid narration added. Fortunately, a restored version was made available in 1984. It's important to see the film in its widescreen version, as several of the shorter track events were filmed head-on to include all of the runners on the track. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi

What might have been a banal TV "movie of the week" in American hands is transformed into a work of art by Japanese director Kon Ichikawa (Harp of Burma). Alone on the Pacific is based on the true story of Kenichi Horie, who as an adult fulfilled his childhood ambition of crossing the Pacific in a small, handmade vessel. Yuiro Ishihara stars as the erstwhile mariner, who sets out on his mission from Japan's Osaka Bay. Despite the ravages of the elements, Ishihara realizes his goal, and in the last shot is seen sailing beneath the Golden Gate bridge. The film's more suspenseful moments are leavened by welcome (and appropriate) doses of humor. Also titled My Enemy, The Sea, Alone on the Pacific is based on Kenichi Horie's own logbook. The American print runs 100 minutes, 4 minutes shy of the original Japanese running time. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This comedy of revenge relates the comeuppance of a television producer whose philandering ways come back to haunt him in a big way. Kaze (Eiki Funakoshi) has nine mistresses, all of whom work at the television studio with him, and a calmly long-suffering wife who runs a bar to keep her mind off his infidelities. Sick of sharing a guy who's no real prize to begin with, the ten objects of his scattered affection hatch a scheme to exact revenge. While their plan succeeds in ruining him, it causes unexpected physical and emotional casualties among the women as well. ~ Tom Vick, Rovi

Kon Ichikawa's adaptation of Shohei Ooka's novel Nobi takes place in the Philippines at the end of World War II. The Japanese army is in hasty retreat from the incoming American forces. The soldiers have also been warned that the Americans will take no live prisoners, and so their flight is all the more desperate. One group of men harbors a soldier named Tamura (Eiji Funakoshi) suffering from the last stages of tuberculosis. Knowing he is facing imminent death anyway, Tamura is able to resist submitting to the chaos and demoralization that overtake his fellow soldiers (who fall so far as to commit murder, cannibalism, and go insane). Eventually Tamura becomes involved with a couple that has returned in order to pick up a cache of salt. He shoots the wife and chases off the husband, bringing him one step closer to losing his humanity. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

This docudrama by Kon Ichikawa is based on a real-life incident that took place in 1950. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (also the title of a novel on the subject by Yukio Mishima) rests in the northern hills of Kyoto. The original pavilion was a villa constructed by the Shogun Yoshimitsu (1358-1409) as a place for leisurely relaxation. After he died, the gold-leafed building was given over for religious use as a temple. As this drama relates, a stuttering temple acolyte who loved the building and all the sacred meaning it held, burnt it to the ground. The crazed young man (played by Raizo Ichikawa) believed that Buddhism had become too commercialized after World War II, had sold out its ideals, in fact. His slow descent into mental instability and his final act of arson are the topic of this film. Whereas most Westerners might require more explanation, the story in this drama as it stands would already be known to the average Japanese audience. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Set against the final days of World War II, The Burmese Harp portrays the experiences of a group of exhausted, war-scarred Japanese soldiers as they prepare to return to Japan. The film focuses on Shoji Yasui, a soldier known to his comrades for his harp playing, who fails to convince a resistant company to surrender and is presumed dead when a battle destroys their hillside encampment. To rejoin his fellow soldiers, Shoji steals the robes of a Buddhist monk and begins to make his way across the countryside. But along the way, he becomes fixated on the hundreds of abandoned, unburied war casualties and begins to assume the duties of his costume and tend to the bodies. Meanwhile, Shoji's friends mount a search for him, eventually noticing the monk to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance. Director Kon Ichikawa's film was adapted by frequent collaborator (and wife) Nato Wada from a book by Michio Takeyama designed to introduce children to the fundamental principles of Buddhism. ~ Keith Phipps, Rovi

This biting comedy established Kon Ichikawa as one of Japan's premier post-war satirists. It centers on a luckless teacher who goes to Tokyo's trendy Ginza district only to get hit by a car. The student he asks to help him demands money. His girl dumps him, and the corrupt politician who hit the teacher becomes rich and popular when he publishes his memoirs from jail. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

The day before her wedding, a young woman goes out one last time with an old boyfriend. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi