Synopsis
Three robbers escape with loot from a heist before one of them kills the others. Their corpses wash up near the aftermath of a maritime calamity, provoking a policeman's interest.
1965 ‘飢餓海峡’ Directed by Tomu Uchida
Three robbers escape with loot from a heist before one of them kills the others. Their corpses wash up near the aftermath of a maritime calamity, provoking a policeman's interest.
Rentaro Mikuni Sachiko Hidari Kōji Mitsui Yoshi Katō Sadako Sawamura Susumu Fujita Akiko Kazami Seiichirō Kameishi Akikane Sawa Tadashi Suganuma Kōji Sekiyama Nobuo Yana Hajime Kubo Gōzō Sōma Genji Kawai Hideo Murota Osamu Kimura Akio Suzuki Masanobu Ôkubo Tadashi Katô Ken Takakura Junzaburō Ban Hidesuke Sone Mitsuo Andō Rinichi Yamamoto Sachi Shindô Itsuma Mogami Tatsuya Kitayama Kosaku Okano Show All…
Kiga kaikyô, Le détroit de la faim, Пролив голода, きがかいきょう, Lo stretto della fame, 饥饿海峡, Un fugitivo del pasado, Беглец из прошлого, 기아해협
For a three-hour-long movie that some have deemed one of the greatest movies in Japanese cinema, this one felt a bit underwhelming and not epic at all. In fact, literally the last hour or so is the detectives figuring out and explaining how the bad guy committed the crime, which I would argue could have easily been trimmed down.
That being said, I’d have to give it to this movie; I don’t think I was completely bored. Perhaps not as fully invested as I was hoping, but never properly bored. The performances by everyone are great, especially Mikuni in his “dual” role, conveying much of the slimy and guilt of the character through dialogue delivery and physical performance. Uchida pulls…
such as a dead end when everything is sped, cases flow and run — between the law tracking down the suspect, the suspect tracking the path of the loophole, the law moving through the struggle, and also the suspect moving through the struggle, all collide with each other and have the same motive and path; looking for solutions, conclusions, and changes.
this mystery evokes the conclusion between moving backward or forwards in question, the mystery creating an image of misguidance — or between moving forward to achieve the bigger or backward to achieve the huger, and which comes in a circle of riddles, the connection of the future and the past developing an outline — time has passed but the…
Tomu Uchida hasn’t let me down yet! This, THE MAD FOX, and BLOODY SPEAR AT MOUNT FUJI have all been excellent.
This film reminds me of Kurosawa’s HIGH AND LOW. Long swaths of the movie are police procedural, where the focus isn’t on the mystery of who did it, but around the details of the suspect and how the police are going to nail him. And the film wanders from protagonist to protagonist as we follow the fugitive himself, a woman who is infatuated / indebted to him, and the various detectives on his case.
There’s also a spiritual element to the film which I find intriguing. Buddhist sutra, Itako spiritual mediums, and the spooky Mt Osore are all featured.…
Only film other than High and Low that masterfully merges the police procedural elements with rich social commentary. As well as a tale of guilt and fate, Uchida through the use of genre conventions gives a sharp and bleak portrait of postwar Japanese society. Truly wonderfully paced and visually stunning with its grainy images. An absolute gem of Japanese cinema.
A three hour long Japanese investigation-procedural crime/drama from the mid 1960’s isn’t exactly an easy undertaking. And indeed, Tomu Uchida’s A Fugitive from the Past proofed to be quite challenging at times. It tested my attention-span on more than one occasion, during its lengthy runtime. There’s no getting around it, it’s a long movie and it feels long. But it’s also wonderfully shot, acted and directed and manages to tell a gripping at times moving story about choices, consequences, guilt and redemption. It is talky, very talky at times but the analytical police procedural is very well done and the movie also manages to give the viewer inside into world of a post-war japan.
Like I said, A Fugitive from…
There are any number of tragic figures to focus on in this thoughtful, measured detective story that deals with killings 10 years apart. I count three main characters fitting that description, and that's without counting the hundreds of poor souls lost at sea when a ferry sinks during a typhoon.
That's one of the events that sets this story in motion, and it's part of one of the finest openings I've seen in a movie in some time. Tomu Uchida just nails it, all the important elements needed to get us hooked falling into place. The visuals, the music, the narration, the tone, the teases that intrigue - just marvelous.
Good thing too, because this film based on a novel…
What I read about this, the only thing I knew going in, was that this was considered a Buddhist picture. I do not know enough about Buddhism to discuss it in those terms, but I really wish I did. I know a few things about Buddhism, about anatta and about trying to alleviate suffering, but I don't quite know enough to really see how anatta fits in (could make some arguments for it, but I'm just not confident enough in my knowledge of the concept to do so). The alleviation of suffering (or failure to do so) is something that can be seen in the film, but I dare not assume that, since that's one of the very few things…
Seemingly reminiscent of both in a discrete way- having the thrilling, disquisitive police-procedural elements of Kurosawa's "High and Low" and those cynical and expressively critical choices akin to Ōshima's "Death By Hanging" at times, Uchida's film fitly purveys a comprehensive, allegorical tale of human condition bespeaking the socio-political specters of hurtful past and destined atonement. Accompanied by a haunting score and noir-infused narrative, keeping that subtle sense of gritty realism, this morally complex story shines in its depiction of societal vulnerability and desperation- all in all, an incisive manifestation of moral culpability and expiation reflecting both- post-war devastation and the collective passivity and feebleness issuing from it.
The extreme widescreen vista of grainy black and white images already brings an energy to the frame, but add to that a newsreel intensity amidst a rising typhoon, a brazen robbery and escape, and a ferry going under in the storm and already my heart was pounding. The music hits hard too - in part old fashioned in its overwrought hand-wringing, but also capable of otherworldly sonorities that rise above the action to suggest there’s a stranger, quieter film at its core. And sure enough, we’re soon repositioned in a police procedural striving to solve the mystery of the two unclaimed bodies from the ferry disaster, suspected to be part of the gang of thieves, whose third member has vanished,…
In A FUGITIVE FROM THE PAST Rentaro Mikuni is always on the run, not only from his past, but perhaps even more so from himself. Uchida Tomu’s picture is a grim one, evoking a sense of despair referencing Japan’s post WW II period. The blown-up, grainy black and white images lead to an even more harrowing atmosphere, as does the rough seaside setting. A FUGITIVE FROM THE PAST (or STRAITS OF HUNGER) is not only rich in its themes, social commentary and imagery, it also boasts some stellar performances, not in the least by Mikuni Rentaro himself. An imposing presence, though full of fear and regret. Also Hidari Sachiko, portraying a prostitute who will play an important part in Mikuni’s…
An extremely patient film that makes the most out of its 3-hour runtime. The story immediately grabs you while you follow three robbers who take adventage of the raging typhoon and consequent shipping disaster. The silent and tall one trumps the others and kills them making off with all the money. Tired he makes an almost offhand friendly gesture which sets off an impressive chain of events.
The film is from the mid-Sixties but possesses an almost authentic post-war feel. The acting is outstanding with Kōji Mitsui giving a wonderful muted performance and Rentarō Mikuni transforming from silent brute into a sophisticated businessman. It's also beautifully filmed with a marvellous shot following the prostitute Yae on the run from a police raid.