Directed by Nozomu Amamiya Country of origin Japan Running time 138 minutes First episode date 25 August 2008 Genre Japanese television drama | Theme music composer Takeshi Umōda Original language(s) Japanese Initial release 2008 Written by Yo Takeyama Language Japanese | |
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Starring Karina Nose
Etsuko Ichihara
Miho Shiraishi
Yui Ichikawa
Risa Kudō
Osamu Mukai Similar Black and White Trypps N, The Trouble with Rom, Strange Hearts, Hanky‑Panky Baby, Secret Society | ||
Kiri no Hi (霧の火) is a Japanese television drama which originally aired on Nippon Television (NTV) on August 25, 2008. Directed by Nozomu Amamiya and with a screenplay by Yō Takeyama, it starred Etsuko Ichihara and Karina Nose. The production won a TV Drama Award at the 2008 Festival of the Arts of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁芸術祭).
Contents
Plot
The story takes place in Maoka City, Karafuto, Japan (Currently Kholmsk, Sakhalin, Russian Federation) during the final year of the Pacific War. Nine telephone operators in Maoka took their own lives by taking potassium cyanide when the Soviet Union invaded the city on August 20, 1945. The TV drama is based on this incident and is partially fictional (names of the characters, etc.).
Cast
Background
The Soviet Union's invasion of Karafuto is a very sensitive topic and controversial in both Russia and Japan due to the previous border dispute between the two countries. A 1974 movie titled Karafuto 1945 Summer Hyosetsu no Mon (樺太1945年夏 氷雪の門) portrayed the invasion of Karafuto by the Red Army that claimed the lives of thousands. However, due to political pressure from the Soviet Union, the Japanese government intervened and banned the movie from being aired and sold.
Kiri no Hi caused less political uproar from Russia due to the movie's insistence as "fiction" and it did not focus on the Red Army's brutal actions but instead talked about world peace. At the end, the granddaughter of the survivor of the Soviet Invasion pointed at Sakhalin and said, "Grandma, look, it's Sakhalin", with a big smile, instead of calling the island its Japanese name of Karafuto, which hints that the Japanese people are willing to move on with the past and go forward even though they were the victim of the Red Army.