IMDb RATING
7.0/10
1.4K
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From June 1944, twelve Japanese seamen are stranded for seven years on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan.From June 1944, twelve Japanese seamen are stranded for seven years on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan.From June 1944, twelve Japanese seamen are stranded for seven years on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Tadashi Suganuma
- Kusakabe, Husband of Keiko
- (as Suganuma)
Kisaburo Sawamura
- Kuroda
- (as Sawamura)
Shôji Nakayama
- Nishio
- (as Nakayama)
Jun Fujikawa
- Yoshisato
- (as Fujikawa)
Hiroshi Kondô
- Yanaginuma
- (as Kondo)
Shozo Miyashita
- Sennami
- (as Miyashita)
Tsuruemon Bando
- Doi
- (as Tsuruemon)
Kikuji Onoe
- Kaneda
- (as Kikuji)
Rokuriro Kineya
- Marui
- (as Rokuriro)
Daijiro Tamura
- Kanzaki
- (as Tamura)
Chizuru Kitagawa
- A Homesick One
- (as Kitagawa)
Takeshi Suzuki
- Takahashi
- (as Suzuki)
Shirô Amakusa
- Amanuma
- (as Amikura)
Josef von Sternberg
- Narrator
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe plot is based on the actual story of one Japanese woman and 30-odd Japanese soldiers and sailors who remained on the island of Anatahan from June 1944 to 1951, when they were evacuated by the US Navy six years after the end of WWII. Due to inter-male conflicts about the woman, as well as probably disease and starvation, only 20 men survived. One of the survivors wrote the book "Anatahan" the movie is based on. However, Sternberg reduced the number of males to 13 for narrative purposes. (Source: Wikipedia ENG & FR and related links.)
- Crazy creditsIn the English-language version, all of the Japanese cast and crew members except Akemi Negishi are billed solely by their last names.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Cinéastes de notre temps: D'un silence l'autre (1967)
- SoundtracksAsatoya yunta
Composed by Chôhô Miyara
Sung by men with alternate lyrics
Featured review
Odd but beautiful
This has to be one of the strangest films I have seen and its sheer oddity is one of the reasons I enjoyed it so immensely. "Anatahan" is based on the "true" story of Japanese soldiers who were shipwrecked during World War II and refused to believe that the war had ended until six years after Hiroshima. On the island with them, the soldiers find a man and woman who did not leave with the island's former inhabitants and the movie's intrigue centers around the soldiers' murderous lust towards the woman. What is so odd about the film is that the actors only speak Japanese and the viewer is led through the story by an English-speaking narrator (Sternberg, himself) who variously refers to himself as "I" and "we" but never clearly identifies who that "I" might be. The narrative is further complicated by the fact that at several crucial moments the narrator admits that no one knows what happened while we watch those events occur onscreen. These constantly shifting levels of "truth" make this film always compelling as we are overtly challenged to question what it is we are seeing and hearing. Like Orson Welles' "F for Fake," truth and artifice interact to create a complicated web of meanings which--at least in my one viewing--never provided easy answers. "Anatahan's" brand of "truth" is a precursor to more recent films like "Fargo," whose truths are meant to be taken ironically rather than as literal fact. Although this film is hard to find, try to get your hands on it if only to see the final piece in a genius director's long line of work.
helpful•341
- mohaas
- Feb 3, 1999
- How long is Anatahan?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- The Devil's Pitchfork
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $8,171
- Gross worldwide
- $8,171
- Runtime1 hour 31 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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