Hana no tokkotai Ah senyu yo
Cherry Blossoms in the Air - The Suicide Raiders - Oh, Buddies! -
- Release Date
- May, 16th, 1970
- Running Time
- 95 min
- Genre
- Feature
- Color
- Color
- Screening Format
- -
- Screen Size
- Cinema Scope (1:2.35)
[ Directed by ]
[ Cast ]
[ Staff ]
- KAWAUCHI Kohan ── Original Story
- NAKANISHI Ryuzo ── Screenplay
- YAMAZAKI Yoshihiro ── Cinematography
[ Production Company ]
NIKKATSU
[ Distributor (Japan) ]
NIKKATSU
[ Story ]
In 1943 Japan is facing defeat. This mak(;}s Shinkichi (Ryotaro Sugi), a straight, selfless student-patriot, ever more restless.
He can no longer stand his soft "behind-the- gun" role of munition factory worker. School- mates one after another are going to the front, where he feels he should be. The last straw is an official report of his father's death in the Battle of Attu in the Aleutian Islands.
He rushes to the naval air corps training camp at Tsuchiura along with his close school- mates "X" (Tatsuya Fuji), "Y" (Akio Hase- gawa), "Z" (Mitsuo Hamada) and "YZ" as Volunteer pilot trainees leaving his mother and sweetheart weeping and helpless.
The camp's death-ignoring wartime training is almost intolerable. Some trainees desert, others choose suicide. Though bitterly shocked by YZ's tragic death in training, Shinkichi wins his wings and a second sublieutenant's insignia. Assigned to the naval air base at Kanoya, he and his friends find training there even more relentless.
Shinkichi's sweetheart, Miho (Masako Izumi), now a local naval hospital nurse, pleads for marriage before he flies away to possible doom. He refuses, fearing she may be a widow overnight.
While Shinkichi is hospitalized after an accident, X flies off. Recovered, Shinkichi joins Commander Akiyama's (Koji Nambara) suicide squadron, whose pilots are to blast into enemy ships aboard single-seater "manned rocket" bombs, said to have sunk an atom bomb-hauling U.S. cruiser. And handsome Shinkichi, is at his glorious best when the whole squadron is ordered into its last sortie.
【Quoted from the database of Nikkatsu Corporation】
【Quoted from Unijapan Film Quarterly 1970.13.3】
[ Contact (International) ]
Nikkatsu Corporation
International Sales
3-28-12 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033
Attn: KAWAI Emico, SUNG Tzwei, YAMAMOTO Umi
tel: +81 3 5689 1014
fax: +81 3 5689 1044
E-mail: international@nikkatsu.co.jp
https://intl.nikkatsu.com
