The Highest Honor
| The Highest Honour | |
|---|---|
| Directed by |
Peter Maxwell Seiji Maruyama |
| Produced by |
Lee Robinson executive John McCallum |
| Written by |
Lee Robinson Katsua Susaki |
| Based on | book by Yuzuru Shinozaki |
| Starring |
John Howard Steve Bisley |
| Music by | Eric Jupp |
| Cinematography | John McLean |
|
Production
company |
|
| Distributed by |
Seven Network (AUS) Toho(Japan) Enterprise (UK) New World Pictures (US, 1985) |
|
Release date
|
1982 9 August 1989 (Australian TV) |
|
Running time
|
96 mins(US) 108 mins (AUS) 143 mins (Japan) |
| Country | Australia Japan |
| Language | English Japanese |
| Budget | over A$5 million |
The Highest Honour is a 1982 Australian film about Operation Jaywick and Operation Rimau by Z Special Unit during World War II.
The same story inspired the mini-series Heroes (1988) and Heroes II: The Return (1991).
During World War II, a team of Australian soldiers from Z Special Unit, including Ivan Lyon and Robert Page, successfully lead an expedition to destroy ships in Singapore harbour, Operation Jaywick. An attempt to duplicate this success, Operation Rimau, ends in disaster, with the team either killed or captured. Those soldiers who are interrogated by the Japanese in Singapore, with Page forming a friendship with Minoru Tamiya. Eventually all the Australians are convicted of war crimes and are executed.
Producers John McCallum and Lee Robinson had previously made a film about Z Special Unit, Attack Force Z (1981). Robinson said he was approached to make the film by a member of the Australian embassy in Tokyo in 1980. He says the official asked him if he was interested in making a movie about Jaywick and Rimau with a Japanese company. Robinson says he spent a year researching the story in Japanese and Australian archives.
The film was originally shot under the title of Southern Cross. Production took place in 1982. It was financed by two dozen Australian businessmen and a Japanese production company, Shinihon Eija, who contributed $1.5 million in marketing and production costs.
There were two versions of the film - Australian and Japanese. Robinson later said the two versions were intrinsically the same but the emphasis in the Japanese film was more towards the Japanese actors and vice versa.
Robinson later said that "the film is a human story of how a friendship can develop among enemies and how human spirit rises above the atrocities of war. It is an anti-war film set in a period remembered for horrendous slayings of civilians."
The film was never released theatrically in Australia but did screen as a mini-series in 1989. It did obtain a theatrical release in the US and England and McCallum says the film sold widely to television. It was also known as Heroes of the Krait and Minami Jujisei.
...
Wikipedia