IMDb RATING
7.0/10
1.4K
YOUR RATING
From June 1944, twelve Japanese seamen are stranded for seven years on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan.From June 1944, twelve Japanese seamen are stranded for seven years on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan.From June 1944, twelve Japanese seamen are stranded for seven years on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan.
- Awards
- 1 nomination total
Tadashi Suganuma
- Kusakabe, Husband of Keiko
- (as Suganuma)
Kisaburo Sawamura
- Kuroda
- (as Sawamura)
Shôji Nakayama
- Nishio
- (as Nakayama)
Jun Fujikawa
- Yoshisato
- (as Fujikawa)
Hiroshi Kondô
- Yanaginuma
- (as Kondo)
Shozo Miyashita
- Sennami
- (as Miyashita)
Tsuruemon Bando
- Doi
- (as Tsuruemon)
Kikuji Onoe
- Kaneda
- (as Kikuji)
Rokuriro Kineya
- Marui
- (as Rokuriro)
Daijiro Tamura
- Kanzaki
- (as Tamura)
Chizuru Kitagawa
- A Homesick One
- (as Kitagawa)
Takeshi Suzuki
- Takahashi
- (as Suzuki)
Shirô Amakusa
- Amanuma
- (as Amikura)
Josef von Sternberg
- Narrator
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe plot is based on the actual story of one Japanese woman and 30-odd Japanese soldiers and sailors who remained on the island of Anatahan from June 1944 to 1951, when they were evacuated by the US Navy six years after the end of WWII. Due to inter-male conflicts about the woman, as well as probably disease and starvation, only 20 men survived. One of the survivors wrote the book "Anatahan" the movie is based on. However, Sternberg reduced the number of males to 13 for narrative purposes. (Source: Wikipedia ENG & FR and related links.)
- Crazy creditsIn the English-language version, all of the Japanese cast and crew members except Akemi Negishi are billed solely by their last names.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Cinéastes de notre temps: D'un silence l'autre (1967)
- SoundtracksAsatoya yunta
Composed by Chôhô Miyara
Sung by men with alternate lyrics
Featured review
After many months of searching I located Josef's The Saga of Anatahan. It definitely held my attention and was a unique viewing experience. A completely Japanese war tale relayed in english (?) it has a strange beauty that is difficult to approximate in plain text. I don't know how Sternberg decided on this as his last cinematic statement, but it is certainly a fascinating b & w piece.
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- The Devil's Pitchfork
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $8,171
- Gross worldwide
- $8,171
- Runtime1 hour 31 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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