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The Big Wave (film)

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The Big Wave
Theatrical release poster
Japanese name
Kanji大津波
Transcriptions
Revised HepburnDaitsunami
Directed byTad Danielewski
Screenplay byPearl S. Buck
Tad Danielewski
Based onThe Big Wave
by Pearl S. Buck
Produced byTad Danielewski
Starring
CinematographyIchio Yamazaki
Edited byAkikazu Kōno
Music byToshiro Mayuzumi[a]
Production
companies
Distributed byAllied Artists Pictures[3]
Release dates
  • April 29, 1962 (1962-4-29) (United States)
  • October 29, 2005 (2005-10-29) (Unzen)
Running time
73 minutes[3]
CountriesUnited States[4]
Japan[4]
LanguageEnglish[4]

The Big Wave (Japanese: 大津波, Hepburn: Daitsunami) is a 1962 disaster drama film directed, co-written, and produced by Tad Danielewski, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced by Stratton Productions and Toho, it is based on Pearl S. Buck's 1948 novel of the same name.[3] The film stars Sessue Hayakawa, Mickey Curtis, Kōji Shitara, and Hiroyuki Ōta. In the film, two boys living in a village that is occasionally threatened by a volcano and tidal waves fall in love with the same woman.

Four years after they developed The Big Wave into a television play and founded Stratton Productions, Buck and Danielewski started production on the film in 1960; Buck visited Japan on May 24 and held a meeting on the film's production. Principal photography began in September 1960 and was reported to have been completed by January 3, 1961.

The Big Wave was released in the United States on April 29, 1962, to positive reviews from critics. The film was later screened in Unzen, Nagasaki, Japan on October 29, 2005.

Plot

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Farmboy Yukio and fisherboy Toru live in a small Japanese village that is periodically threatened by a volcano on one side and tidal waves on the other. The village and most of its inhabitants are destroyed by a tidal wave after not heeding the warning of the Old Gentleman. Ten years pass, and now Toru and Yukio, who survived the big wave, are like brothers. Setsu, Yukio's sister, and Toru plan their marriage and their future as fisherfolk. The Old Gentleman offers them a farm in the village, but they turn him down, knowing that he will always warn them of future tidal waves.

— The American Film Institute[5]

Cast

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Production

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Development

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Four years after they developed The Big Wave into a television play and founded Stratton Productions,[7] Pearl S. Buck and Tad Danielewski started creating the novel into a film in 1960; Buck visited Japan on May 24 and held a meeting on the film's production.[8]

Filming

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Principal photography began in September 1960[9] and had concluded by January 3, 1961.[10] The film was shot near Nagasaki[11] on the island of Kyushu,[12] at Unzen City[13] and in Obama.[14]

Special effects

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The film's special effects were directed by Eiji Tsuburaya.[13] Tsuburaya made sketches of the tsunami sequence he was appointed to stage for the film and presented them to Buck and the additional co-producers. Buck called the sketches as "startlingly accurate water colors of the rising horizon, the onrushing wave, and the towering crash of the crest." During the meeting, Tsuburaya also announced plans to recreate the fishing village depicted in the film by taking his cameraman along with him and photographing "everything".[15]

While the crew was filming in Obama, Tsuburaya was staging the tsunami scene at Toho Studios in Tokyo. Buck stated that "twice he had come to Obama to consult and to take hundreds of pictures of Kitsu and the empty beach beyond. We knew that we were in safe hands, the tidal wave would be perfect, but we could not see it until we returned to the city. Ours was the task of creating the approach to the wave, and the recovery from it."[16]

Tsuburaya's effects were the final section of the film to be completed. In A Bridge for Passing, Buck described the last day of filming: "The famous special-effects artist was waiting for me, debonair in a new light suit and hat and with a cane. He had the confident air of one who knows that he has done a triumphantly good job, and after a survey of the scene I agreed with him. In a space as vast as Madison Square Garden in New York, which is the biggest place I can think of at the moment, he had reconstructed Kitsu, the mountains and the sea. The houses were three feet high, each in perfect miniature, and everything else was in proportion. A river ran outside the studio and the rushing water for the tidal wave would be released into the studio by great sluices along one side. I looked into the houses, I climbed the little mountain, I marveled at the exactitude of the beach, even to the rocks where in reality I had so often taken shelter. The set was not yet ready for the tidal wave. That I was to see later on the screen in all its power and terror. I had seen everything else, however, and I said farewell, gave thanks, and went away."[17]

Release

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The Big Wave was released in the United States on April 29 1962,[18][19] receiving positive reviews from critics.[20][21] It was later screened in Unzen, Nagasaki, Japan at Unzen Memorial Hall on October 29, 2005.[13]

Notes

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  1. ^ Since Mayuzumi was not in Japan at the time, the majority of music for the film was composed by Tōru Takemitsu and Riichirō Manabe, according to the latter.[1]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ "黛敏郎作品リスト" [List of works by Toshiro Mayuzumi] (in Japanese). So-net. Archived from the original on June 4, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  2. ^ a b Hischak 2014, p. 24.
  3. ^ a b c "The Big Wave (1962)". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Hischak 2014, p. 25.
  5. ^ "The Big Wave (1962) - Synopsis". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  6. ^ Buck 1962, p. 36.
  7. ^ Conn 1996, p. 342.
  8. ^ Takeuchi & Yamamoto 2001, p. 335.
  9. ^ Los Angeles Mirror 1960, p. 20.
  10. ^ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 1961, p. 26.
  11. ^ Battle Creek Enquirer 1960, p. 11.
  12. ^ Deseret News 1960, p. 26.
  13. ^ a b c "ゴジラの円谷監督が特撮担当、幻の映画を"初上映"" [Director Tsuburaya of Godzilla is in charge of special effects, "premiere" of the fantasy movie]. ZAKZAK (in Japanese). October 24, 2005. Archived from the original on October 28, 2005. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  14. ^ Buck 1962.
  15. ^ Buck 1962, p. 112.
  16. ^ Buck 1962, p. 241.
  17. ^ Buck 1962, p. 252.
  18. ^ "The Big Wave (1962)". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  19. ^ The 1963 Film Daily Year Book of Motion Pictures. Wid's Films and Film Folk, Inc. 1963. p. 187.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  20. ^ "Big Wave --- An Unusual 2nd Feature". Variety. September 26, 1962. p. 19.
  21. ^ "Review Digest". Boxoffice. June 25, 1962. p. 13.

Sources

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