Karafuto 1945 Summer Hyosetsu no Mon
7.8 /10 1 Votes
Director Mitsuo Murayama Country Japan | 7.6/10 IMDb Duration Language Japanese | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date August 17, 1974 (1974-08-17) Writer Toshio Kaneko (based on the book by), Takeo Kunihiro (screenplay) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Karafuto 1945 Summer Hyosetsu no Mon (樺太1945年夏 氷雪の門) is a 1974 Japanese film based on the Soviet Union's military action on Karafuto during the Soviet–Japanese War near the end of World War II. The movie is set in Maoka (present day Kholmsk), and the story is based on the deaths of nine women who worked in the postal telegraph office in the city. Twelve women worked in the office, and on August 20, 1945, nine of them committed suicide.
Contents
Plot
The film is set in Karafuto after the radio broadcast of the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War. On August 15, 1945, Soviet forces invaded Karafuto. On August 20, the postal telegraph office in Maoka suspended operations and nine of the twelve telephone operators committed suicide by taking potassium cyanide while the city was being invaded.
Pressure by USSR
Despite the film's release in many nations, including the Soviet Union, Moscow argued that the film defamed the Soviet Union and the Soviet people and would only make people more hostile towards the USSR. The movie was eventually banned in the Soviet Union after two weeks' distribution in Hokkaidō and western Kyūshū. On August 25, 2008, a Japanese television drama was aired called Kiri no Hi, which was based on the same historical events. However, the television drama caused less of a political uproar from Russia than Karafuto 1945 Summer Hyosetsu no Mon, due to the movie's insistence as a work of "fiction" and because it did not focus on the Red Army's brutal actions but instead talked about a wish for world peace.
Re-release
On July 17, 2010, when the film was almost 36 years old, it was released in various theatres worldwide.
Original cast
References
Karafuto 1945 Summer Hyosetsu no Mon WikipediaKarafuto 1945 Summer Hyosetsu no Mon IMDb