Cinema
The Last War
世界大戦争
Shūe Matsubayashi · 1961
Synopsis
Sixteen years after the war, Tokyo has recovered; Tamura Mokichi, a chauffeur at the press club, wishes only for the happiness of his family, and his daughter Saeko obtains his permission to marry Takano, a sailor long away. Meanwhile, two imaginary blocs, the Federation and the Alliance, clash through successive incidents: a captured spy ship, a new Korean war, aerial combat over the Arctic, according to Toho Kingdom, until nuclear war is feared.
Context
The project was dear to the producer Tanaka Tomoyuki; the screenplay is by Kimura Takeshi and Yasumi Toshio, and Tōei was preparing a film on the same subject at the same time. The effects are by Tsuburaya Eiji, who destroyed model cities with compressed air and molten metal. Toho Kingdom puts the budget at some eight hundred and thirty thousand dollars. The film earned around two hundred and eighty-five million yen and was Tōhō's second biggest success of the year.
Who it is for
About one hundred and ten minutes, in colour and widescreen. No theatrical release in France.
Prizes and reception
Ninth highest-grossing film of Japanese cinema in 1961, it was broadcast on American television in 1964 in a shortened version.