Based on a 1956 television feature on Japan’s national network, NHK, this is one of Uchida’s rarest films. A socially conscious drama with a contemporary backdrop, Dotanba focuses on the attempts to rescue a group of trapped miners. The title is a figure of speech — (essentially “last minute” or “eleventh hour”) — that refers to a situation of peril. The film boasts a script co-written by Uchida and Akira Kurosawa’s frequent screenwriter, Shinobu Hashimoto, and stars Kurosawa’s frequent star Takashi Shimura.
Writing
Hashimoto's lean, unsentimental script wastes zero breath.
Acting
Shimura anchors chaos with quiet, exhausted resolve.
Director
Ryuzo Kikushima
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Uchida spent years in Manchuria's film industry; this was his post-war comeback, shot for television with theatrical ambition.
The 1956 Miike coal mine disasters made this horrifyingly topical — NHK essentially produced prestige trauma processing.
JP
