A broke swimmer, a lovesick woman, and friends who actually show up — rare!
Three college friends support swimmer Okubo through family and financial troubles. Junko, a woman he helped, develops feelings for him, while a former classmate reappears. With his friends’ quiet help, Okubo regains focus and wins a major student swimming competition.
Acting
Takarada and Kubo's effortless best-bro chemistry.
Direction
Aoyagi captures postwar student life with warmth.
Cinematography
Crisp TohoScope swimming sequences, surprisingly kinetic.
Director
Nobuo Aoyagi
Akira Takarada
Takada Shinichi
Akira Kubo
Ōkubo Akira
Tatsuyoshi Ehara
Maehara Tatsuo
Yōko Tsukasa
Mizuno Junko
Reiko Dan
Nakajima Michiko
Michiyo Tamaki
Togami Keiko
Mitsuko Kusabue
Koshiba Harumi
Keiju Kobayashi
Yamaoka
Hiroshi Tachikawa
Matsumoto
Kenji Sahara
Yamada
Kamatari Fujiwara
Ōkubo Reisuke
Tomoko Matsushima
Nakajima Masako
Nijiko Kiyokawa
Ōkubo Tsuneko
Norihei Miki
Cleaning Shop Owner
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This captures 1950s Japanese student culture — the 'gakusei' identity as transitional, hopeful, and broke.
Akira Takarada would become Toho's biggest star in Godzilla (1954) — this is him as a charming everyman first.
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