Themes: Stranded, Woman In Jeopardy, Survival in the Wilderness
Main Cast: Akemi Negishi
Release Year: 1953
Country: JP
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
Anatahan (aka Ana-Ta-Han) represented the apotheosis of filmmaker Josef von Sternberg's lifelong fascination with the Orient. Over a year in the making, the film was the most expensive ever made in Japan up to 1953. Based on fact, the story concerns a group of Japanese marines who refused to believe that their country had been defeated in 1945, and thus spent the next seven years stubbornly manning their posts on a remote Pacific Island. The central character is a woman known as the "Queen Bee," who is marooned on the island along with the marines. As the only female in the vicinity, our heroine is aggressively pursued by every male in sight (von Sternberg capriciously refers to her most ardent suitors as her "drones"). Former Nichiegki Theatre chorus performer Akemi Negishi plays the Queen Bee. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Anatahan(アナタハン?), also known as The Saga of Anatahan, is a 1953 black and white Japanese film war drama directed by Josef von Sternberg.
It was the final work directed by noted Hollywood director Josef von Sternberg (although Jet Pilot was released later). Von Sternberg had an unusually high degree of control over the film, made outside the studio system, which allowed him to not only direct, but also write, photograph, and narrate the action. Although it opened modestly well in Japan, it did poorly in America, where von Sternberg continued to recut the film for four more years. He subsequently abandoned the project and went on to teach film at UCLA for most of the remainder of his lifetime.
Art director was Takashi Kono, special effects was made by Eiji Tsuburaya and camera operator was Kozo Okazaki.[2]
Twelve men of a shipwreck find themselves on a desert island, which is only inhabited by a farmer and a beautiful woman. A bloody struggle of power ensues, as also they find hand weapons from the crash of an American fighter.
