燃ゆる大空

燃ゆる大空 (1940)

The film was produced during Second Sino-Japanese War, before the Pearl Harbor Attack in 1941. The film mainly concerns the training of newly-recruited pilots and their daily life, then their subsequent fighting experiences in China. Army supported the production, providing all the authentic airplanes, training and actual actions. They even provided the older biplanes disguised as Chinese fighter planes. Obinata plays the trainer-turned-combat-leader, who is passionate and cool at the same time. All his boys love him, of course. The film is not as intense, full of sugar-coated camaraderie, until young pilots are killed in action one by one. Last twenty minutes are fairly grim, as the message of self-sacrifice is heard loud and clear.

Data di uscita
1940-05-10
Durata
1 h 41 min
Generi
Guerra
Regista
阿部豊

Cast

Curiosità

The Burning Sky is a 1940 black-and-white Japanese war film produced and directed by Yutaka Abe, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film depicts the growth and fighting style of Imperial Japanese Army Air Service officers as they undergo training, and later their interactions with their former instructor as they fight together in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War after he takes command of their squadron. Considered a work of high quality, The Burning Sky is ranked eighth in the Kinema Junpo list of Ten Best Japanese Films. Special cinematographer Eiichi Tsuburaya won the Japan Photographers Association Award for his work on the film.

Production

Made to commemorate the 2,600th anniversary of the Imperial era in Japan in 1940, The Burning Sky took three years to film. The Japanese Army Ministry and Army Aviation Headquarters fully cooperated in the making of the film, and 947 real Imperial Japanese Army Air Service military aircraft in use during the Second Sino-Japanese War, as well as active air personnel, participated in the filming.

Director Yutaka Abe was skeptical of special effects, so he focused on real scenes, but some scenes lacked the impact he desired, so special effects scenes were added. However, most of the flight scenes were shot with actual aircraft actually flying for the movie, rather than using special effects or reusing existing film such as that of newsreels.

For the crash-landing scene, a model airplane made of pasted-together construction paper was launched from a cliff with a slingshot while three cameras filmed the action from the bottom of the cliff, but the model airplane blew away in the wind. It was not seen again.

The early part of The Burning Sky depicts the training and life of young airmen at the Kumagaya Army Flight School in a realistic and sometimes humorous manner, and serves as an advertisement for military enlistment. The movie was unique even at the time in that no women appear in it. Kazuo Hasegawa appears in the role of a military doctor attached to the Army Air Service in order to attract a female audience.

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