Nankyoku Monogatari

Nankyoku Monogatari
Directed by	Koreyoshi Kurahara
Produced by	Tomohiro Kaiyama Masaru Kakutani Koretsugo Kurahara Juichi Tanaka
Written by	Toshirō Ishidō Koreyoshi Kurahara Tatsuo Nogami Kan Saji
Starring	Ken Takakura Tsunehiko Watase Eiji Okada Masako Natsume
Music by	Vangelis
Cinematography	Akira Shiizuka
Editing by	Koreyoshi Kurahara Akira Suzuki
Distributed by	Nippon Herald Films (Japan) Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (USA - dubbed)
Release date(s)	23 July 1983 (1983-07-23)
Running time	143 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Nankyoku Monogatari (南極物語^?, literally "South Pole Story", released in the U.S. as Antarctica) is a 1983 Japanese film directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara and starring Ken Takakura. Its plot centers on the 1958 ill-fated Japanese scientific expedition to the South Pole, its dramatic rescue from the impossible weather conditions on the return journey, the relationship between the scientists and their loyal and hard-working Karafuto Dogs, particularly the lead dogs Taro and Jiro, and fates of the 15 dogs left behind to fend for themselves.

As of 2007^[update], the film is available on DVD in Japan (Japanese subtitles) and Hong Kong (Chinese and English subtitles). The original electronic score was created by Greek musician Vangelis, who had recently written music for Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner. The soundtrack is available worldwide on CD-audio as Antarctica.

Nankyoku Monogatari's plot was adapted into the 2006 Disney movie Eight Below.

In 2011, a Japanese drama titled Nankyoku Tairiku centers around Japan's first expedition to Antarctica in 1958.

Plot

In February 1958, the Second Cross-Winter Expedition for the Japanese Antarctic Surveying Team rode on the icebreaker Sōya to take over from the 11-man First Cross-Winter Expedition. Due to the extreme weather conditions in Antarctica, Sōya could not get near enough to the Showa Base and they decided not to proceed with the stay-over.

The First Cross-Winter Expedition retreated by helicopter, but they had to leave 15 Sakhalin Huskies at the unmanned Showa Base. The dogs were left chained at the base, as the team thought that they would be returning, but they did not due to fuel shortages. The team was worried about the dogs, as the weather was extremely cold and only one week of food was available.

Meanwhile, eight of the fifteen sled dogs managed to break loose from their chains (Riki, Anko, Shiro, Jakku, Deri, Kuma, Taro, and Jiro), but the other seven were not so fortunate. As they journeyed across the frozen wilderness of Antarctica, the dogs were forced to survive on their own feces, hunting penguins and seals on the ice shelves and even eating the excrement of seal for food. As months passed, several of the dogs died or disappeared in the glacier. Riki was fatally injured by an orca while trying to protect Taro and Jiro. Anko and Deri fell through the ice and drowned in freezing waters. Shiro fell off a cliff to his death, and Jakku and Kuma disappeared in the wilderness.

Eleven months later, on 14 January 1959, Kitagawa, one of the dog handlers in the first expedition, returned with the Third Cross-Winter Expedition, wanting to bury his beloved dogs. He, along with the two dog-handlers Ushioda and Ochi, recovered the frozen corpses of seven dogs, but were even more surprised when they discovered that eight of their dogs had broken loose. To everyone's surprise, they were greeted warmly at the base by two dogs, Taro and Jiro, brothers who were born in Antarctica.

It is still unknown how and why the brothers survived, because an average husky can only live in such conditions for about one month. In the movie, the director used the data available, together with his imagination, to reconstruct how the dogs struggled with the elements and survived.

Cast

• Ken Takakura as Akira Ushioda
• Tsunehiko Watase as Kenjirō Ochi
• Eiji Okada as Chief Ozawa
• Masako Natsume as Keiko Kitazawa
• Keiko Oginome as Asako Shimura
• Takeshi Kusaka as Morishima Kyōju
• Shigeru Kōyama as Horigome Taichō
• Sō Yamamura as Iwakiri Senchō
• Jun Etō as Tokumitsu Taiin
• Kōichi Satō as Toda Taichō
• Shin Kishida as Kissaten Master
• Takeshi Ōbayashi as Nonomiya Taichō
• Shinji Kanai as Ozaki Taichō

Production

The film took over three years to make. It was filmed at the northern tip of Hokkaidō. The dogs in the film were sired by Kuma, a Sakhalin from Furen and were born in Wakanai, Hokkaido, not Antarctica.

• 7 dogs were found dead at the base still chained: Goro, Pesu, Moku, Aka, Kuro, Pochi, Kuma (monbetsu)

• 6 dogs got loose and disappeared: Riki, Anko, Shiro, Jakku, Deri, Kuma (furen)

• 2 survivors left: Taro and Jiro

Release and reception

Nankyoku Monogatari was entered into the 34th Berlin International Film Festival.^[1] The film was a big hit in Japan, becoming the number one Japanese film on the domestic market in 1983, earning ¥5.9 billion in distribution income.^[2]

The breed of dog also became briefly popular. However, concerns were raised that the dogs who took part in the filming might have been subjected to extreme conditions to obtain the degree of realism involved. The American Humane Association withheld its "No Animals Were Harmed" disclaimer, rating the film "Unacceptable" due to what it regarded as deliberate cruelty on the set.^[3] The director responded that the emotions shown by the dogs during the film were painstakingly captured and then edited into the relevant parts. In order to recreate the death scenes the dogs were carefully anesthetized. The parts where the dogs drowned or fell were done in the studio and blue-screened with the actual filming location. The blood on the dogs was fake. It remained unclear whether the deaths of the prey animals (a seabird and a seal) were also simulated.

Data

• Producer and Director: Koreyoshi Kurahara
• Release Date: 23 July 1983
• Box office: 5.9 billion yen
• Viewership: c. 8.8 million
• Main actor: Ken Takakura

Original score album

The original score to Nankyoku Monogatari was composed, arranged, produced and performed by Greek artist Vangelis. It was recorded at Vangelis' Nemo Studios, in London, UK, by sound engineer Raine Shine. The album was released worldwide (including Japan) as Antarctica.

Fate of Taro and Jiro

The younger brother Jiro died at the age of four during the fifth expedition in July 1960. His body was made into a specimen and is placed together in the National Science Museum at Ueno, Tokyo.^[4] The older brother Taro was luckier: he returned to Hokkaido University for his retirement, and died at the age of 15 in 1970. His body was also made into a specimen at Hokkaido University.

References

External links

• Nankyoku Monogatari at the Internet Movie Database
• Details of the film (Chinese)
• Filming Location (Japanese)