Eagle of the Pacific explained

Eagle of the Pacific
Director:Ishirō Honda
Producer:Sojiro Motoki
Starring:Denjirō Ōkōchi
Music:Yūji Koseki
Cinematography:Kazuo Yamada
Editing:Koichi Iwashita
Distributor:Toho
Runtime:119 minutes
Country:Japan
Language:Japanese
Budget:¥170 million
Gross:¥163.180 million[1]

, also known as Operation Kamikaze, is a 1953 Japanese epic war film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film dramatizes the start of Japan's military action in World War II, with an emphasis on the role of Isoroku Yamamoto.[2]

Production

Toho intended Eagle of the Pacific to be an ambitious, Hollywood-style film. The studio used storyboarding to plan the visual effects sequences, a technique they would repeat on Godzilla.[3]

Stock footage was utilized extensively in Eagle of the Pacific; some sources claim that producer Sojiro Motoki secured approval for the film by offering to reuse action sequences from The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya. Thus, special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya's return to Toho was not a lavish affair. It is mostly rehashed footage augmented by a few new effects, and he only had a small crew. Many newspaper critics weren't fooled by Toho's trick photography, citing stock footage as evidence.

Reception

Eagle of the Pacific grossed 163 million yen, the third highest total for a Japanese film in 1953.[4]

Release

The film was released on DVD in Japan in 2005.[5]

References

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Kinema Junpo Best Ten 85th Complete History 1924-2011. May 17, 2012. Kinema Junpo. 104. 978-4873767550.
  2. Web site: 太平洋の鷲. Agency for Cultural Affairs. 27 December 2020.
  3. Book: Ragone, August. Eiji Tsuburaya: master of monsters : defending the earth with Ultraman, Godzilla, and friends in the golden age of Japanese science fiction film. 2007. Chronicle Books. 978-0-8118-6078-9. 31.
  4. Book: Igarashi, Yoshikuni. Bodies of memory: narratives of war in postwar Japanese culture, 1945-1970. 2000. Princeton University Press. 978-0-691-04912-0. 233.
  5. Book: Taiheiyō no washi (DVD video, 2005) [WorldCat.org]. WorldCat.org. 317586832.