Battle of the Japan Sea (film)

Battle of the Japan Sea
Battle of the Japan Sea
	Theatrical release poster
Japanese name
Kanji	日本海大海戦
Revised Hepburn
Transcriptions
Revised Hepburn	Nihonkai Daikaisen
Directed by	Seiji Maruyama
Written by	Toshio Yasumi
Produced by	Tomoyuki Tanaka
Starring	Toshiro Mifune; Yūzō Kayama; Tatsuya Nakadai; Toshio Kurosawa; Makoto Satō; Ryutaro Tatsumi; Chishū Ryū; Matsumoto Kōshirō VIII;
Cinematography	Hiroshi Murai
Edited by	Yoshitami Kuroiwa
Music by	Masaru Sato
Production; company	Toho
Distributed by	Toho
Release date	August 1, 1969 (Japan);
Running time	127 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Budget	¥350 million
Box office	¥360 million

Battle of the Japan Sea (Japanese: 日本海大海戦, Hepburn: Nihonkai Daikaisen, lit. 'The Great Battle in the Japan Sea') is a 1969 Japanese epic war film directed by Seiji Maruyama, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya.^[3]^[4] The film stars Toshiro Mifune, Yūzō Kayama, Tatsuya Nakadai, Toshio Kurosawa, Makoto Satō, Ryutaro Tatsumi, Chishū Ryū, and Matsumoto Kōshirō VIII.^[4] In the film, the Imperial Japanese Navy and army fail in their attempts to seize Port Arthur, and the Russian Pacific Fleet bears down on the Japan Sea during the Russo-Japanese War.

The film was theatrically released in Japan by Toho on August 1, 1969 and earned ¥360 million, against a production budget of ¥350 million, during its theatrical run, making it the second-highest-grossing Japanese film of 1969.

Cast

^[4]^[5]

Toshiro Mifune as Tōgō Heihachirō
Yūzō Kayama as Hirose Takeo
Tatsuya Nakadai as Akashi Motojiro
Makoto Satō as Abo Kiyokazu
Akira Kubo as Kikuisami Matsui
Susumu Fujita as Kamimura Hikonojō
Eijiro Yanagi as Itō Hirobumi
Akihiko Hirata as Tsunoda Koreshige
Yoshifumi Tajima as Ijichi Hikojirō
Kenji Sahara as Maruhashi Hikosaburo
Jun Tazaki as Shimaji Hashiguchi
Masao Shimizu as Totsuka Tamaki
Ryuji Kita as Admiral Kataoka Shichirō
Toru Abe as Lieutenant Colonel Suji Genjiro
Kiyoshi Kodama as Captain Yamamoto Shinjiro
Yoshio Inaba as Shimamura Hayao
Yoshio Tsuchiya as Akiyama Saneyuki
Chishū Ryū as Nogi Maresuke
Matsumoto Kōshirō VIII as Emperor Meiji
Ken Mitsuda as Yamagata Aritomo
Shin Tatsuoka as Inoue Kaoru
Takamaru Sasaki as Kuki Ryūichi
Ryutaro Tatsumi as Yamamoto Gonnohyōe
Toshio Kurisawa as Pfc. Maeyama
Takeshi Katō as Chief of Staff Officer Katō
Andrew Hughes as Zinovy Rozhestvensky
Harold Conway as John Campbell
Hans Horneff as Nikolai Kolomeitsev
Peter Williams as Admiral Nebogatov
Jacob Shapiro as Informant
Ted Gunther as Shuriakusu
Osman Yusuf as a Russian officer
Mitsuko Kusabue as Mrs. Tōgō
Haruo Nakajima as Staff of the First Fleet (uncredited)
Robert Dunham as Aide to Admiral Alekseyev (uncredited)
Ralph Jesser as Staff Officer of the Baltic Fleet (uncredited)
Arthur Stark as Captain Svarov (uncredited)
Akio Kusama
Jun Funato

Production

Special effects

Battle of the Japan Sea was the last film for special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya before his death.^[3]^[6]^[a] A dedicated team of 60 artists worked on the 107 miniature ships created for the film.^[8] In addition, the miniature of the battleship Mikasa was made up to 13 meters long.^[8] Due to the weaker shell power during the Russo-Japanese War in the Pacific War, Freon gas was used to represent water column in the naval battle scene.^[8]

Release

Battle of the Japan Sea was distributed theatrically in Japan by Toho on August 1, 1969.^[4]^[9]^[10] During its theatrical release, the film earned ¥360 million.^[2] It was released on DVD in Japan on June 21, 2001, by Toho Home Video.^[11]

Notes

^ Tsuburaya's credit on All Monsters Attack was honorary; he was not involved in that film's production.^[7]

References

^ Large Special Effects: Japanese Tokusatsu Film History (in Japanese). Asahi Sonorama. 1985. p. 267. ISBN 9784257031888.
^ ^a ^b Kinema Junpo Best Ten 85th Complete History 1924-2011. Kinema Junpo. May 2012. p. 260. ISBN 978-4873767550.
^ ^a ^b Ryfle 1998, p. 47.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "日本海大海戦 : 作品情報". 映画.com (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-10-02.
^ Galbraith IV 2008, p. 259.
^ "VFXのルーツを知る！須賀川特撮アーカイブセンター訪問記と「特撮の街」須賀川市の取り組み（1） | 特集 | CGWORLD.jp". CG・映像の専門情報サイト | CGWORLD.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-10-02.
^ Ryfle 1998, p. 157.
^ ^a ^b ^c Nihon tokusatsu gensō eiga zenshū (Shohan ed.). Tōkyō: Keibunsha. 1997. p. 205. ISBN 978-4-7669-2706-1.
^ "日本海大海戦". www.jmdb.ne.jp. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
^ allcinema, 映画日本海大海戦 (1969)について映画データベース - allcinema (in Japanese), retrieved 2021-10-02
^ 「綴込特別付録宇宙船 YEAR BOOK 2002」『宇宙船』Vol.100（2002年5月号）、朝日ソノラマ、2002年5月1日、 170頁、雑誌コード：01843-05。