Suna no utsuwa (1974)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Yoshitaro Nomura

Writers:

Shinobu Hashimoto (writer)
Seicho Matsumoto (novel)

Release Date:

10 October 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Thriller

Plot Keywords:

Cop Killer | Adoption | Shame | Father Son Relationship | Bar

Awards:

7 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Tetsuro Tamba	...	Detective Imanishi
Go Kato	...	Eiryo Waga
Kensaku Morita	...	Detective Yoshimura
Yôko Shimada	...	Reiko
Karin Yamaguchi	...	Sachiko
Ken Ogata	...	Miki
Seiji Matsuyama	...	Miki's Son
Yoshi Kato	...	Waga's Father
Chishu Ryu	...	Kirihara
Shin Saburi	...	Ex-Finance Minister Tadokoro
Kiyoshi Atsumi	...	Movie Theater Manager
Kazuhide Kasuga	...	Motoura Hideo
Junko Natsu	...	Akiko, hostess at Cabaret Bonuru
Taketoshi Naitô	...	Search section chief
Masumi Harukawa	...	Naka Sumie, woman at fan shop

Also Known As:

The Castle of Sand (USA)

Runtime:

143 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Ebisu, Naniwa, Osaka, Japan

Company:

Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo

Movie Connections:

Version of "Suna no utsuwa" (2004)

2005 NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL SIDEBAR - Special Retrospective

The Film Society of Lincoln Center Presents

A Special Retrospective of The 43rd New York Film Festival

The Beauty of the Everyday: Japan's Shochiku Company at 110 September 24 – October 20, 2005

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

This year's New York Film Festival Retrospective— The Beauty of the Everyday: Japan's Shochiku Company at 110— is virtually a pocket history of Japanese cinema. While some fifteen of the forty-five films in the retrospective are devoted to Japanese filmmaker masters, such as Ozu, Naruse, and Mizoguchi, more than two dozen of the films are by directors far less well-known in the West.

The Castle of Sand / Suna no Utsuwa Yoshitaro Nomura, 1974; 140m Two detectives, Imanishi and Yoshimura, are assigned to the murder of a 60-year-old man whose body was found dumped in a railroad yard. It turns to be that of a former policeman, Miki; the murder now seems even more mysterious, as Miki was well liked by all and had been on holiday when he was killed. The detectives visit all the places to which Miki has traveled, with little luck, but then they read an account buried in a lengthy report of how Miki years before had befriended a destitute, leprous man and his young son. Amazingly, that boy had grown up to become Eiryo Waga, a rising star in the music world. Could such an eminent figure have anything to do with the murder? Sadly, Yoshitaro Nomura passed away this past April; for years one of Shochiku's most popular and reliable directors, he worked successfully in a variety of genres but especially made his mark with The Castle of Sand, based on a best-selling novel. A real delight, the film contains many of the classic features of the detective film — the pairing of a veteran and a rookie, the investigation as a voyage of discovery, wonderfully eccentric supporting characters — but under Nomura's sure direction they take on a whole new life.

ONLY ONE Screening: Sun Sept 25: 9:00pm