Directed by:
Yasuzo MasumuraScreenplay:
Seiji HoshikawaCinematography:
Setsuo KobayashiComposer:
Tadashi YamauchiCast:
Raizō Ichikawa, Mayumi Ogawa, Daisuke Katō, Sachiko Murase, Gakuya Morita, Akira Natsuki, Yuji Moriya, Koichi Ito, Kisao Tobita, Shin MinatsuPlots(1)
What propels young men willingly to shed their identities for an uncertain objective? How far can men go to safeguard their vocation? Can morality realistically have a place in wartime? Masumura poses a myriad of thorny questions in this sober spy drama, stripping the genre of all its glamour and focusing on the cunning institutionalization of men too proud and too self-delusional to confront the legitimacy of their work. Set during the Sino-Japanese War of 1937, Raizô Ichikawa is Jiro, an idealistic young man who finds himself recruited in Japan’s first military intelligence school. Faced with stern ethical choices, Jiro is prompted to decide what kind of man he envisions himself to be. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)
(more)Cast
Raizō Ichikawa
Japan
Best movies:
Revenge (1963)
Band of Assassins (1962)
Ken (1964)
Mayumi Ogawa
Japan
Best movies:
Zatoichi's Vengeance (1966)
Farewell to the Ark (1984)
The Demon (1978)
Daisuke Katō
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Yojimbo (1961)
Sachiko Murase
Japan
Best movies:
Zatoichi, the Fugitive (1963)
Zatoichi and the Doomed Man (1965)
Kisses (1957)
Gakuya Morita
Japan
Best movies:
Zatoichi's Pilgrimage (1966)
Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972)
The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)
Akira Natsuki
Japan
Best movies:
Fires on the Plain (1959)
The Wife's Confession (1961)
The Black Test Car (1962)
Yuji Moriya
Japan
Best movies:
The Wife's Confession (1961)
The Black Test Car (1962)
Gamera: The Giant Monster (1965)
Koichi Ito
Japan
Best movies:
Fires on the Plain (1959)
The Black Test Car (1962)
Japan Sinks (1973)
Kisao Tobita
Japan
Best movies:
Red Angel (1966)
Fires on the Plain (1959)
The Wife's Confession (1961)
Shin Minatsu
Japan