Tsurugidake: Ten no ki

THE SUMMIT: A CHRONICLE OF STONES

劔岳　点の記

Release Date: June, 20th, 2009

Running Time: 139 min

Genre: -

Color: Color

Screening Format: 35mm

Screen Size: Cinema Scope (1:2.35)

Sound Processing: Dolby SR

[ Directed by ]

KIMURA Daisaku

[ Produced by ]

[ Cast ]

ASANO Tadanobu ── SHIBAZAKI Yoshitaro
KAGAWA Teruyuki ── UJI Chojiro
MATSUDA Ryuhei ── IKUTA Shin

[ Staff ]

NITTA Jiro ── Original Story
KIMURA Daisaku ── Screenplay
KIKUCHI Atsuo ── Screenplay
MIYAMURA Toshimasa ── Screenplay
KIMURA Daisaku ── Cinematography
ITAGAKI Keiichi ── Editor
IKEBE Shinichiro ── Music

[ Production Company ]

TOEI

[ Distributor (Japan) ]

TOEI

[ Story ]

Based on a robust mountaineering novel by Naoki Prize-winning writer Nitta Jiro, this film is the directorial debut of veteran cinematographer Kimura Daisaku, who also served as cinematographer on the 1977 film of another Nitta novel, Hakkodasan. The film tells the true story of a survey team that risked their lives to map Mt. Tsurugidake in the Japan Alps early in the 20th century. The team's passion is depicted with a documentary touch, employing no aerial photography or computer graphics. Two years were spent tracing the actual story on location, and the severe beauty of the snow-covered mountains is captured in full.
In 1907, army surveyor Shibazaki Yoshitaro Asano Tadanobu) is ordered to make the first ascent and survey of Mt. Tsurugidake, the most difficult peak in the Tateyama range and the last unsurveyed spot on the Japanese map. His superiors are rushing to complete the map for national defense purposes. He searches for a climbing route to the summit with a local mountain guide, Uji Chojiro (Kagawa Teruyuki), and the assistant surveyor Ikuta Shin Matsuda Ryuhei). But they encounter bad weather on the face of precipitous ridges, and struggle with the resistance of locals who have a religious belief in the mountains. Around the same time, members of the newly-formed Japanese Alpine Club, including Kojima Usui (Nakamura Toru) and others, are planning their own ascent of Mt. Tsurugidake.