Nihon no ichiban nagai hi

Director: Kihachi Okamoto
Cast:
Toshirô Mifune … War Minister Korechika Anami
Sô Yamamura … Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai
Chishu Ryu … Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki
Seiji Miyaguchi … Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo
Takashi Shimura … Information Chief Hiroshi Shimomura
Toshio Kurosawa … Maj. Kenji Hatanaka
Shogo Shimada … Imperial Cmdr. Takeshi Mori
Susumu Fujita … Col. Toyojiro Haga
Rokko Toura … Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Shunichi Matsumoto (as Matsuhiro Toura)
Yûnosuke Itô … Maj. Gen. Nonaka
Daisuke Katô … Yabe of NHK
Etsushi Takahashi … Cmdr. Masutaka Ida
Jun Tazaki … Col. Yasuna Kozono
Takao Inoue … Cmdr. Masahiko Takeshita
Nobuo Nakamura … Lord Keeper Koichi Kido

Description: From IMDB:

Japan’s Longest Day is a spectacle of a film, one that has been almost extinct outside of Japan. I believe the film’s style came from the 1962 omnibus production, The Longest Day. Kihachi Okamoto’s storytelling is as rigid as the Imperial officers that he displays for his viewers. The action unfolds much like an extra edition of a newspaper. Subtitles suddenly appear, telling the name and rank of almost every character in the film. The machine gun narrative was the right choice nevertheless.

The premise of the film is Japan’s reaction and submission to the Allied forces’ plea to surrender. The stubborn samurai tradition of the nation will not allow it to surrender in a casual fashion. There is much deliberation on the topic of surrender throughout the entire length of the film. The Imperial military is the source of much of the conflict. Many of the soldiers want to die in battle rather than willingly surrender to Western authority. A struggle develops between the military powers and the Emperor’s cabinet members. The cabinet members assess the situation from the civilian point of view; they are willing to surrender. Making their decision by observing the high rate of casualties from the 2 atomic bombs dropped on the homeland as well as the thousands of starving citizens. The only other film by Kihachi Okamoto that I have seen was Kill! The director inserts more dark humor into this film as well. Okamoto is almost making fun of Japan’s well-known, slow-moving bureaucratic system. The cabinet member’s are very reserved when making severe decisions. They take time to think about what is best for the emperor while their nation is crumbling. The conflict steadily rises as overzealous soldiers begin to rebel. The tension in the conflict builds to unbearable degrees, much like Kobayashi’s Samurai Rebellion.

Anyone who knows World War 2 history will know the film’s ending. This is truly a remarkable production. Anyone with an affinity towards Japanese film will see all of their favorite faces this movie. Animeigo’s widescreen transfer is near-perfect. The choice to film in black-and-white was truly stylistic. As I stated earlier, I believe that The Longest Day was a tremendous influence on this film. It appears that there might have been documentary footage spliced in with staged footage. Or it could have been mockumentary footage spliced in, as in Scorsese’s Raging Bull. The film is not photographed in documentary-style, but it looks more realistic than say, an average chanbara film. The actors who portrayed the zealous soldiers of the Imperial army must receive special merit for their performances, especially Toshio Kurosawa, as Major Hatanaka. A film almost completely forgotten of over the years, as have much of the Nuberu Bagu films are, but a fine one at that. Highly Recommended.