The Last War

The Last War Alternate titles The Great World War (1961) See alternate titles Directed by Shue Matsubayashi Producer Sanezumi Fujimoto, Tomoyuki Tanaka Written by Toshio Yasumi, Takeshi Kimura Music by Ikuma Dan Distributor TohoJP, Brenco PicturesUS Box office ¥284,900,000 Running time 110 minutesJP (1 hour, 50 minutes) 79 minutesUS (1 hour, 19 minutes)

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The Last War (世界大戦争,   Sekai Daisensō, lit. The Great World War) is a 1961 tokusatsu science-fiction film produced by Toho. It was released to Japanese theaters on October 8, 1961.

Plot

The film begins with a narration over the shots of modern-day Tokyo, noting that 16 years after the end of World War II, and Japan have achived rapaid recovery. Mokichi Tamura works as a driver for a press center, hoping for happiness for his family. His daughter, Saeko, is in love with a merchant, Takano, who has been at sea for a long time. When he returns, the couple agree to get married with the consent of Saeko's father. Meanwhile, tensions between the Federation and the Alliance build, ecspecially after an intelligence-gathering vessel is captured. A new Korean War breaks out across the 38th parrall but is quickly stopped. Although, Japan calls on both sides to seek peace, government officials think that the country could be ripe for Alliance retaliation in light of its open support for the Federation. Dogfights between Federation and Alliance fighters over the Artic are just the beginning of a renownex confict. Soon after an Armistics agreement is concluded between North Korea and South Korea, tensions begin to erupt again because of the fighting between the two Koreas. The efforts of the military to overcome the war are fruitless. In adition, Japan's missile warning begin to mount in Japan, and anxeity of the people reaches a peak. IBCMs are eventually launched on both sides in the climax of the escalating war, with targets being major cities around the world including Tokyo, London, Paris, New York City, and Moscow. The Tamura family stay behind in the midst of the city's panic and hold a final dinner. That night, Tokyo is enveloped in a flash of nuclear light and dissolved. Tamura and his family are killed by the detonation over Tokyo as their house is blown away by the ensuring fireball. The next morning after Tokyo's decimation, Takano's ship changes course to remain of the destroyed city, prepared to die by intense radioactive fallout. The ships chaperone and Takano break down as the enduring events of what has happened become realised. The last shot shows Tokyo, now an immense crater, with rthe remains of the Diet Building at the centre and a warning laid over the screen, asking for the events in this film never to happen.

Staff

Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.

• Directed by   Shue Matsubayashi
• Written by   Toshio Yasumi, Takeshi Kimura
• Produced by   Sanezumi Fujimoto, Tomoyuki Tanaka
• Music by   Ikuma Dan
• Cinematography by   Rokuro Nishigaki
• Edited by   Koichi Iwashita
• Production design by   Takeo Kita, Teruaki Abe
• Assistant directing by   Yasuyoshi Tajitsu
• Special effects by   Eiji Tsuburaya, Sadamasa Arikawa, Takao Miyuki, Yoshiyuki Tokumasa, Akira Watanabe, Kuichiro Kishida, Hiroshi Mukoyama, Kan Narita
• Recording by   Fumio Yanoguchi
• Mixing by   Hisashi Shimonaga
• Production Manager   Boku Morimoto

Cast

Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.

• Frankie Sakai   as   Mokichi Tamura
• Akira Takarada   as   Takano
• Yuriko Hoshi   as   Saeko Tamura
• Nobuko Otawa   as   Mokichi's Wife
• Yumi Shirakawa   as   Saeko
• Shu Ryuichi   as  
• Jerry Ito   as   Watkins
• Eijiro Tono   as  
• So Yamamura   as   Prime Minister
• Ken Uehara   as   Foreign Minister
• Seizaburo Kawazu   as   Defense Agency General
• Nobuo Nakamura   as   Chief Cabinet Secretary
• Chieko Nakakita   as   Oharu
• Minoru Takada   as   Tokyo Defense Commander
• Shigeki Ishida   as   Arimura
• Naoko Sakabe   as   Suzue
• Kozo Nomura   as  
• Masao Oda   as  
• Yutaka Sada   as  
• Nadao Kirino   as  
• Koji Uno   as  
• Seiji Yoshida   as  
• Toshihiko Furuta   as  
• Kyoko Mori   as   Female shipping company clerk
• Teruko Mita   as   Imoko
• Jiro Kumagai   as  
• Soji Ubukatta   as  
• Shiro Tsuchiya   as  
• Keiichiro Katsumoto   as  
• Naoya Kusakawa   as  
• Wataru Omae   as  
• Yoshio Katsube   as  
• Masaki Shinohara   as  
• Yutaka Oka   as  
• Koji Abe   as  
• Yuko Tominaga   as  
• Yuki Shimizu   as   Female commercial company clerk
• Toshiko Nakano   as   Neighbor A
• Tsurue Ichimanji   as   Neighbor B
• Asami Hotaka   as  
• Howard Larson   as   Federal Army Staff
• Hank Brown   as   Federal Army Lieutenant
• Daniel Jones   as  
• Ben Greenhough   as  
• Mike Snape   as  
• Roy Lessard   as  
• Hans Horneff   as  
• Harold Conway   as   Federal Army Firing Commander
• Osman Yusuf   as  
• Robert Dunham   as   Alliance Staff (uncredited)
• Haruo Nakajima   as   Policeman (uncredited)

Appearances

Weapons, Vehicles, and Races

• Federation
  • Federal Missile Tank
  • Nuclear Missile
  • Federal Attack Submarine
• Alliance
  • Allied Fighter Plane
  • Allied Attack Submarine

Gallery

Main article: The Last War/Gallery.

Soundtrack

Main article: The Last War (Soundtrack).

Alternate Titles

• World War III: the Day of Tokyo's End (第三次世界大戦 東京最後の日; Early Japanese title)
• Death-Rays from Outer Space (Todesstrahlen aus dem Weltall; Germany)
• The Last War of the Apocalypse (La Dernière Guerre de l'Apocalypse; France)

Videos

The Last War Japanese trailer (reconstruction) The Last War International trailer The Last War American TV trailer The Last War American TV spot

Trivia

• For the scenes depicting the destruction of Paris, Moscow, New York, London, and Tokyo, Eiji Tsuburaya suggested created miniatures out of paraffin, before it was suggested to use wafers. In a 1996 interview, miniature builder Yoshio Irie recalled "Since the destruction of the world's cities was going to be such a crucial element of [The Last War], we tried to find a substance that would produce especially convincing results when blown up. We experimented with many different materials, but found that wafers worked best. Unfortunately, we also found that mice liked to eat the wafers."
  • In order to combat the issue of mice eating the wafers, several of the miniatures were hung and filmed upside down, which ultimately made them look in the finished film like they were being blasted high into the air.

References

This is a list of references for The Last War. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: ^[1]