Tokyo Olympiad
| Tokyo Olympiad | |
|---|---|
North American release poster
|
|
| Directed by | Kon Ichikawa |
| Produced by | Suketarō Taguchi |
| Written by | Kon Ichikawa Ishio Shirasaka Shuntarō Tanikawa Natto Wada |
| Narrated by | Ichiro Mikuni |
| Music by | Toshiro Mayuzumi |
| Cinematography | Kazuo Miyagawa |
| Edited by | Tatsuji Nakashizu |
|
Production
company |
|
| Distributed by |
Toho (USA) Actueel Film (1965) (Netherlands) Dino de Laurentiis Distribuzione (1966) (Italy) American Broadcasting Company(1968) (USA) (TV) Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
170 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese English |
Tokyo Olympiad (東京オリンピック Tōkyō Orinpikku) is a 1965 documentary film directed by Kon Ichikawa which documents the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Like Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia, which documented the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Ichikawa's film was considered a milestone in documentary filmmaking. However, Tokyo Olympiad keeps its focus more on the atmosphere of the games and the human side of the athletes instead of concentrating only on the winners and the results. It is one of the few sports documentaries included in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.
The 1964 Summer Olympics were seen as vitally important to the Japanese government. Much of Japan's infrastructure had been destroyed during World War II and the Olympics were seen as a chance to re-introduce Japan to the world and show off its new modernised roads and industry as well as its burgeoning economy. Every Olympics since the first modern games in 1896 Summer Olympics had been committed to film to some extent or another, usually financed by the International Olympic Committee for reasons of posterity. For the 1964 Olympics the Japanese government decided to finance their own film and initially hired Akira Kurosawa who, at the time, was the most famous Japanese director worldwide thanks to films such as Ikiru and Seven Samurai. However, Kurosawa's famous tendency for complete control - he demanded to not only direct the film but the opening and closing ceremonies as well - led to his dismissal. This led to the bringing in of Ichikawa, who had a reputation of coming into productions where events hadn't followed the initial plans.
...
Wikipedia