Acting
Sonny Chiba before he became an action god — devastatingly tender.
Direction
Nakajima frames suicide missions like weddings, all ritual and dread.
Cinematography
Static compositions that trap you in barracks claustrophobia.
Director
Sadao Nakajima
Koji Tsuruta
First Lieutenant Jinnouchi
Ken Takakura
First Lieutenant Kenmochi
Hiroki Matsukata
Second Sublieutenant Shiratori
Sonny Chiba
Second Sublieutenant Hanzawa
Isao Natsuyagi
Second Sublieutenant Nanjô
Kunio Murai
Second Sublieutenant Yui
Yoshiko Sakuma
Noriko Nanjô
Sumiko Fuji
Reiko Shiratori
Asao Koike
First Lieutenant Ôoka
Kenjirō Ishiyama
Senzô Shiratori
Masaya Takahashi
Yuriko Mishima
Yûko
Bin Amatsu
Rinichi Yamamoto
Ônuma
Shoichi Ozawa
Sublieutenant Doi
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during Vietnam escalation, the film's anti-war undertones were controversial in Japan — conservatives wanted celebration, not elegy.
Ken Takakura was already a star; this role nearly typecast him as doomed military men until the yakuza films rewrote his legacy.
JP
