Under the Flag of the Rising Sun
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

is a 1972 Japanese film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. It is based on two of the stories in Yūki Shōji's Naoki Prize-winning short story collection of the same name. The film was selected as the Japanese entry for the
Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
at the
45th Academy Awards The 45th Academy Awards were presented Tuesday, March 27, 1973, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, honoring the best films of 1972. The ceremonies were presided over by Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston, ...
, but was not accepted as a nominee.


Plot

In 1946, Sakie Togashi receives a death notice for her husband Sgt. Katsuo Togashi's death during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, but it does not include the specific date of death and the cause of death has been changed from "combat-related" to "deceased" so she suspects that something is being hidden. She despairs, but must remain alive to raise their daughter Tomoko alone. In 1952, the Military Family Survivor Benefits Law is enacted, but the government refuses her benefits, claiming that Katsuo Togashi was a deserter in New Guinea in August 1945. All of the military records had been burned at the end of the war, so the Ministry of Welfare sent inquiries to the other men in Katsuo's unit but received no response from four men. Sakie tracks down these four men and asks them to reveal the truth about Katsuo's actions. Private First Class Tsugio Terajima says that he was never sent an inquiry and tells Sakie how Sgt. Togashi saved his life in 1943 in the fight against Americans and Australians in
New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...
by defying orders and telling the men not to proceed into an obvious trap, then again in 1944 by telling him to flee a sick camp when he learns of a plan to kill the sick. Terajima now lives in a Korean shanty town and is unwilling to visit
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
to testify. Corporal Tomotaka Akiba, now an actor playing a comedic caricature of a Japanese holdout on stage, tells Sakie that he remembers a sergeant being shot for stealing potatoes from the military supply, but is not certain if it was Sgt. Togashi. Military Police Sergeant Nobuyuki Ochi, now blind from drinking postwar black market booze known as "bomb", tells Sakie that he remembers a sergeant killing soldiers to eat and sell their meat, but is not certain if it was Sgt. Togashi. 2nd Lieutenant Tadahiko Ohashi, now a high school literature teacher, tells Sakie that information was disclosed after the war that Major Senda, Division Staff Officer, had ordered the killing of a captured Australian pilot by 2nd Lieutenant Goto, but Goto merely repeatedly injures the prisoner until an M. P. is ordered to shoot the prisoner. Goto, left traumatized by the incident, had become increasingly hostile and had forced his subordinates into hard labor and had hoarded their rations, so Sgt. Togashi and others had killed him. After the war, one of them had confessed to the killing so Senda had them all killed by firing squad without a court-martial to cover up his botched execution of the Australian. Sakie confronts Major Takeo Senda, who insists that he followed proper procedure. He tells her that only the three men involved in the murder had been executed but that Terajima had been spared. Sakie returns to Terajima, who admits that his previous story was a lie but explains that Goto had refused to believe that the war was over and had ordered a new offensive. He had drawn his sword on the famished Terajima, causing Togashi and two other men to kill him to save Terajima. The others then left for HQ while Terajima, unable to walk, cooked and ate Goto to survive. He later confessed the murder but was spared while Togashi and the two others were executed by Military Police Sergeant Ochi. Terajima and Sakie discover that Ochi has been struck and killed by a vehicle while crossing on a red light while intoxicated. Terajima tells her that Togashi had demanded white rice for his last meal and that he had faced Japan to scream angrily at the Emperor before his death. Sakie thinks to herself that the Emperor started the war without asking the permission of the Japanese people yet they were left paying for it.


Cast


Production

Kinji Fukasaku used the money he received from
20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
for co-directing the Japanese portion of ''
Tora! Tora! Tora! ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' ( ja, トラ・トラ・トラ!) is a 1970 epic film, epic war film that dramatizes the Empire of Japan, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The film was produced by Elmo Williams and directed by Richard Fleischer, T ...
'' to buy the rights to adapt Yūki Shōji's 1970 short story collection ''Under the Flag of the Rising Sun''.


Release

''Under the Flag of the Rising Sun'' received a roadshow theatrical release in Japan starting on 12 March 1972 where it was distributed by Toho. It received a general release on 13 May 1972. The film was released in the United States with English subtitles by Toho International on 17 August 1982.


Reception

According to Mark Schilling, ''Under the Flag of the Rising Sun'' received critical praise both in Japan and abroad for its "''
Rashomon is a 1950 Jidaigeki psychological thriller/crime film directed and written by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori (actor), Masayuki Mori, and ...
''-like story line and brutal realism". Tom Mes of Midnight Eye called it a powerful anti-war drama and one of Fukasaku's "most uncompromising films" for directly laying bare the numerous negative side effects of Japan's economic miracle. Praising ''Under the Flag of the Rising Sun'' as the best Fukasaku film he has seen,
Glenn Erickson Glenn Erickson is an American film editor and film critic. A graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, he started in the film industry in 1975 as an editor of low-budget films and later worked in minor technical crew capacitie ...
of DVD Talk wrote that by cutting right to the heart of the issue and "saying that looking for honor and righteousness in war deeds is an exercise in futility" it comes off as an alternate history of Japan and its 'Official Success Story'. He also praised Fukasaku's "half-documentary feel", with characters introduced via freeze frames and title cards and flashbacks being mostly in black and white, as much more successful than in the director's later yakuza films.


See also

*
List of submissions to the 45th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of submissions to the 45th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was created in 1956 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to honour non-English-speaking films ...
*
List of Japanese films of 1972 A list of films released in Japan in 1972 (see 1972 in film). See also *1972 in Japan *1972 in Japanese television References Footnotes Sources * * External linksJapanese films of 1972at the Internet Movie Database {{DEFAULTSO ...
* List of Japanese submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film


References


Sources

* * * * *


External links

* * {{Kinji Fukasaku 1972 films 1972 drama films Films about cannibalism Films directed by Kinji Fukasaku Films set in 1942 Films set in 1943 Films set in 1944 Films set in 1946 Films set in 1952 Films set in 1971 Films set in Papua New Guinea Films set in Tokyo Films with screenplays by Kaneto Shindo Japanese drama films 1970s Japanese-language films Pacific War films Toho films 1970s Japanese films