Umizaru (2004)

Director:

Eiichiro Hasumi

Writers:

Shuho Sato (comic)
Yasushi Fukuda (screenplay)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Rescue | Young Man | Japanese | Ocean | Manga

Cast

Hideaki Ito	...	Daisuke Senzaki
Ai Katô	...	Kanna Izawa
Ken Kaito	...	Yuji Mishima
Karina	...	Nurse Erika Matsubara
Atsushi Itô	...	Hajime Kudo
Kyoko	...	Natsuko Nakasako
Jun Kunimura	...	Admiral Masaki Igarashi
Tatsuya Fuji	...	Sergeant Minamoto
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tadahiro Aoki	...	Muto
Laura Windrath	...	Fashion model

Also Known As:

Sea Monkey (International: English title) (literal title) (USA) (literal English title)

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Japan:G | Singapore:NC-16 | Singapore:PG (cut)

Company:

Fuji Television Network

Goofs:

Continuity: In the final pool test, Hajime Kudo (Atsushi Ito) breaks the handle of the 20kg weight while lifting it out of the pool. In the next scene, that very same weight is shown with it's handle still intact.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Limit of Love: Umizaru (2006)

Soundtrack:

Open Arms

Excellent Japanese movie on JCG trainee divers

Commonly touted as the Japanese Coast Guard version of Top Guns, this is an excellent movie that provides an in depth look into the training life of Japanese Coast Guard divers. They are an elite group of people and only 1% of the Japanese Coast Guards can make it to this training each year.

There are generous amounts of underwater shots for a Japanese movie and you can tell the production team has taken pains in making the movie memorable. Apparently, it was a summer hit when released in Japan in 2004.

This movie is the pilot to the drama which was released in Japan in 2005 and they've just released the sequel to this movie in May 2006. Very interesting concept that the producers have chosen and it had created lots of hype for the recently released sequel resulting in box office records as well.