is a 2007 action film directed by

Izuru Narushima is a Japanese scriptwriter and film director from Yamanashi Prefecture. In 2011, his film ''Rebirth'' was awarded the Japanese Academy Prize for best picture. Filmography As Director * ''The Hunter and the Hunted'' (2004) * ''Fly, Daddy, Fl ...

and written by

Yasuo Hasegawa Yasuo is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Yasuo can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *安雄, "tranquil, male" *安男, "tranquil, man" *安夫, "tranquil, husband" *安� ...

and Kenzaburo Iida, based on the novel by Tetsuo Takashima. ''Midnight Eagle'' is the third film directed by Izuru Narushima. The film opened in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

on October 2, 2007 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. It was also shown October 20, 2007 at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The film opened in

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on November 23, 2007, and opened in

on December 7, 2007.

Production

Executive producers were Keiji Kameyama, Kazutaka Akimoto, Yasuhide Uno, Riki Takano, and Kanjiro Sakura. Producers were Michihiko Umezawa, Masakazu Yoda, Teruo Noguchi, Tomiyasu Moriya, and Kei Fujiki.
The film was shot with the full cooperation of the

Japan Ground Self Defense Force The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force ( ja, 陸上自衛隊, Rikujō Jieitai), , also referred to as the Japanese Army, is the land warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Created on July 1, 1954, it is the largest of the three service b ...

, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, and Ministry of Defense.
Mountaineer Hirofumi Konishi was the special advisor for the scenes set in the Northern Alps. Before shooting started, the crew of the film was given training in snow-covered mountains. ''Midnight Eagle'' was the first mountain film set in Japan since ''The Precipice'' in 1958.

Plot

A top secret American forces strategic bomber known as "Midnight Eagle" suddenly vanishes in the Japanese

Hida Mountains The , or , is a Japanese mountain range which stretches through Nagano, Toyama and Gifu prefectures. A small portion of the mountains also reach into Niigata Prefecture. William Gowland coined the phrase "Japanese Alps" during his time in Japan, ...

Cast

Takao Osawa is a Japanese actor. Career Osawa starred in the 2002 film ''Filament'' and the 2007 film ''Midnight Eagle''. He has also appeared in films such as Masayuki Suo's ''A Terminal Trust'' and Takashi Miike's ''Shield of Straw''. The Newport Beach F ...

as Yuji Nishizaki * Yūko Takeuchi as Keiko Arisawa *

Hiroshi Tamaki is a Japanese actor, singer, and model from Nagoya, Japan. When he was still in high school, he was discovered by a talent agent while out shopping with friends. He made his debut in the drama ''Am I Weird?'' (私ってへん？ ''Watashitte Hen ...

as Shinichiro Ochiai * A-Saku Yoshida as Major Akihiko Saeki *

Yoshihiko Hakamada is a Japanese actor. He graduated from Hamana High School. Hakamada was born in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. He is represented by Platinum Production. Hakamada's wife is ''tarento'' Ai Kawanaka. Discography Singles Albums Filmography ...

as Toshimitsu Fuyuki *

Nao Ōmori , sometimes credited as Nao Ohmori or Nao Omori, is a Japanese actor. He was given the Best Supporting Actor award at the 2004 Yokohama Film Festival. Career Omori starred in Takashi Miike's ''Ichi the Killer''. He co-starred with Shinobu Teraji ...

as Major Kensuke Saito *

Ken Ishiguro is a Japanese film, television and voice actor. He has appeared in more than 80 films since 1979. He is the son of Osamu Ishiguro was a tennis player from Japan. Career He played his first tournament in 1959 at the Asian Championships ...

as Tadao Miyata * Tatsuya Fuji as Prime Minister Watarase

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews by Western critics. As of November 24, 2007 on the review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, 20% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 5 reviews. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film had an average score of 48 out of 100, based on 6 reviews.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{Izuru Narushima 2007 films 2000s Japanese-language films Mountaineering films Japanese aviation films 2007 action films Shochiku films Films directed by Izuru Narushima Japanese action films 2000s Japanese films