Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Connianatu How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

Megamind To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

bkoganbing Although some very interesting things were said in it, in the final analysis Behind The Rising Sun was more propaganda than truth to it. It was also insulting and in fact a couple of things might have gotten director Edward Dmytryk membership in the Hollywood 10.J. Carrol Naish and Tom Neal with Oriental makeup on them play father and son. Naish a member of the rising new business class in Japan can afford to send Neal to Cornell in America. He comes back sporting new hep cat idioms of expression.The film tries for some verisimilitude as Naish says that Japan is about to take its place in the world, that the white man is not a majority by any means in the world. Neal doesn't quite to make of his dad's militance but drinks it in far more than he realizes then. That bit of dialog I'm sure got noticed by the folks at House Un American Activities Committee headed around then by Mississippi racist John Rankin.Later on the roles reverse as Naish decides his country has become to fascist with its Samurai based code of military behavior. Japan is the great example always held up by historians about the need for civilian control of the military. By then Neal is a true believer in the destiny of Japan.Another thing that got HUAC's attention was George Givot playing the Russian journalist who becomes friend and benefactor to Americans caught in Japan after Pearl Harbor. A friendly portrayal of a Communist would certainly do the trick with the HUAC thought police.At one point Neal and former employer engineer Don Douglas have a nasty confrontation and decide to settle it with seconds. Neal gets wrestler Mike Mazurki who excels in Judo. Douglas gets his friend Robert Ryan to go in for him. In real life Mazurki was a wrestler before turning to acting and being really good at it. Ditto for Ryan who did box as an amateur and both look like they know what they're doing. Both go into the ring using their arts. Ryan and Mazurki must have had one good laugh over it because the heavier and very agile Mazurki would have killed Ryan.A couple of other key roles are Dorothy Thompson like reporter Gloria Holden and Margo playing the girl Neal wants to marry. Her heart is truly broken.Behind The Rising Sun had some serious things to say, but in the end with that insulting makeup just doesn't hold up today.

Armand a classical propaganda movie. with usual ManicheAN speech, with good Americans and a sort of Japanes villain, with cruelty, happy end and a sad love story. it can be ridiculous , amusing, a document or, only, a pure nice film from an old period. in fact, it is little more. a map about perception of a nation, a exercise for few American actors to perform under make-up for becomes Japaneses, remember about a war traces and, sure, interesting comparison between box and judo. like many old films, it is a mirror for its period. naive, strange, not serious, full of pathetic scenes. but, in a special manner, realistic. because the crumbs of fiction grows - up on real earth.

cutterccbaxter This film was an attempt by Edward Dymtryk to show the Japanese as individuals, and not as stereotyped sub-humans commonly portrayed in the other films of the period. The goal was to show Japan's aggressiveness was the result of a militaristic culture that came to dominate the country by squashing out all forms of liberalism. The Office of War Information (OWI) approved of the approach for they were constantly dismayed by Hollywood's depiction of the Japanese, feeling that after the U.S. had won the war these types of negative portrayals would only hinder a solid relationship between the two nations. I think it could be argued that "Behind The Rising Sun" failed to meet expectations, and ended up being a confused piece of propaganda. This is what probably makes it rather fascinating to watch today. It never firmly develops any major sympathetic Japanese character except the one played by Margo, and the basis of her character is that she is intrigued by all things American. The Japanese character played by J Carrol Naish has changed his political outlook by the conclusion of the film to be against Japan's expansionist aspirations. He decides his best course of action is to kill himself. Tom Neal, who looks like he is auditioning for a part in a video for The Vapor's "I Think I'm Turning Japanese," is apparently supposed to be an example of how Japan's militaristic culture can take a happy-go-lucky fellow, and transform him into a ruthless and cold hearted killer. His transformation doesn't seem very believable. His actions seem to support the racists notions the viewer might have had at the time rather than cast doubt on them."We never let a cat break up a good poker game in Idaho" --Lefty I think my favorite scenes in the film involve Robert Ryan's character, Lefty. When he shoots his pistol at a cat, and the authorities show up and confiscate his gun he is completely befuddle. It's like he can't believe he is in a country that is so oppressive that a fellow can't even shoot a cat. His fight scene with Mike Mazurki is quite memorable too.

arwebevenstar Well, where do I start? I would like to point out some erroneous statements by the first viewer commenting. He states that the introductory statement says it is "100% true" and "authentic". Actually, its says "true-to-life", which I would construe to be similar to today's films saying that the movie is "based on...". It states that the film is not biographical, but the incidents depicted did occur. We know from historical works that the Japanese were responsible for many atrocities in China, especially Manchuria...the giving of opium to the starving villagers, the bayoneting of infants and toddlers, the raping of Chinese women and the setting up of houses of prostitution to "service" the Japanese Army & so on. So as Hollywood has always done, they take real facts and fictionalized & personalized them to give them more impact. A statement by the previous commenter, about how all the major roles were played by white actors, while actors of Japanese heritage played lesser/support roles. Well, as far as I can tell by cast listing, there were no Japanese actors in the movie. Philip Ahn (Korean descent), Benson Fong and the other Asian actors are Chinese ancestry. J. Carroll Naish had played other Asian characters throughout his career. Tama was played by Mexican-American actress, Margo (married to Eddie Albert).Tom Neal makes a very strange Japanese, even for the time...For a propaganda film, it is more even handed in its portrayal of the Japanese characters and the upheaval in Japanese society then many war films of its day. There are two story strands, the brutalization of Taro, from a americanized frat boy to a murdering martinet and the humanizing of his father, Reo Seki, who comes to see the loss of son and his son's happiness in marriage to Tama, a farmer's daughter and the destruction of the rigid social order of his beloved country... The Russian is portrayed positively; the German a bit dismissively; and the three Americans (woman reporter, the male engineer, the baseball coach), are all different faces of American society: the brave American (the woman reporter); the status-quo American (the engineer) and the "ugly" American (the baseball coach).