Probably one of the most powerful anti-nuclear messages in any film this side of the original Godzilla. Lucky Dragon No. 5 is the harrowing true story of the lives of a crew of a little tuna fishing boat being forever changed after witnessing the detonation of the Castle Bravo H-bomb test. A kaiju film with no monster, it's a movie worthy of a place in the Criterion collection it's criminal this film isn't more well known.
An ageing fishing boat, Dai-go Fukuryu Maru ("Lucky Dragon No. 5") sets out from port travelling around the Pacific line fishing. While the ship is near Bikini Atoll, the ship's navigator sees a flash with all the crew coming up to watch, and their worst fears are realised. It's another atomic explosion. A short time later, grey ash starts to fall on the ship.
Aside from the fact this film was released just 5 years after the event in question, it takes a pseudo-docudrama filmmaking approach in its second half chronicling the crew after their return to Japan and subsequent experimentation by both the US and Japanese governments to understand the effects of the H-Bomb. It's unflinching in how it portrays the said governments and the crew of the No.5 are left dehumanised to the point that they become a statistic.
Kaneto Shindo crafts a film that is equal parts simplistic and effortless in what it's trying to tell. Although the event now lives in the footnotes of the atomic age, Shindo infuses his film with equal amounts of humanity just as much as he does ruthless realism. It's not a film that prides itself on action and melodrama but more so on education on the age the world has entered. There's a real unrelenting choice of shots here that maximise the emotional impact of the second half of the film, in truth the whole film is beautifully shot, almost akin to a watercolour painting yet without the technicolour.
The cast all perform their roles well, it's surprising to see so many Toho regulars in a Daiei movie but given this is Shindo at the helm it's hardly surprising he netted himself such a cast. The writing forgoing any excess or unnecessary drama to give life to the men whose lives would never be the same following the 1st of March 1954. Of course, there was one man who wouldn't live past the turn of the year, chief radioman Kuboyama Aikichi. He is beautifully and lovingly brought back to life by Jukichi Uno with his scenes later in the film as he gradually succumbs to the effects of radiation sickness being genuinely hard to watch and sickening knowing that his death would be the first of many unnecessary casualties of the Cold War.
The hoops you need to jump through to see this film however are extraordinary. Low-quality copies exist on the farthest corners of the internet and fansubs can be found with equal effort for those wanting to experience this lost gem, but if needs must I'm sure a bootleg exists be it DVD or Blu-ray. I found a 240p copy via YouTube with no subtitles and had to download some later which were improperly timed but even that didn't hinder what this film brings to the table.
The real Lucky Dragon No. 5 may be just a footnote to a history major now, but given the context, it's hard to imagine a more important film in the history of Japan's own experiences post-1945. Granted there's most likely some dated material to be found when looked at with a modern eye, but the sheer silence and bright whites of the H-Bomb detonation followed by the speaker-shattering boom of the shockwave is enough to send a shiver down anyone's spine. This one comes highly recommended if you can deal with the so-so copies hanging around on the internet.
I'm sorry if I rambled too much but this film left such a profound impact on me that it was hard not to do so.
