Lucky Dragon No. 5
第五福竜丸
Directed byKaneto Shindō
Written by
Produced by
  • Hisao Itoya
  • Kazuo Wakayama
  • Tengo Yamada
  • Setsuo Noto
Starring
Cinematography
  • Eikichi Uematsu
  • Dai Takei
Music byHikaru Hayashi
Production
companies
Kindai Eiga Kyokai
Shinseiki Eiga
Distributed byDaiei Film
Release date
  • 18 February 1959 (1959-02-18) (Japan)[1][2]
Running time
107 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Lucky Dragon No. 5 (第五福竜丸, Daigo Fukuryū Maru) is a 1959 Japanese drama film directed by Kaneto Shindō.[1][2] It is based on events involving the fishing boat Daigo Fukuryū Maru and the Castle Bravo thermonuclear bomb test in 1954.[1]

Plot

An ageing fishing boat, Dai-go Fukuryū Maru ("Lucky Dragon No. 5") sets out from the port of Yaizu in Shizuoka Prefecture. It travels around the Pacific, line fishing. While the ship is near Bikini Atoll, the ship's navigator sees a flash. All the crew come up to watch. They realize it is an atomic explosion, but take the time to clear their fishing gear. A short time later, grey ash starts to fall on the ship. By the time the ship returns to port, the sailors have been burned brown. They unload the fish, which are then transported away. They visit the local doctor and then go to Tokyo for an examination. It turns out they are all contaminated with radioactivity. Their symptoms become worse, and the contaminated fish causes a panic. The men are taken to hospitals in Tokyo, leaving their families behind. The radio operator, Kuboyama, dies from the radiation.

Cast

Legacy

Lucky Dragon No. 5 was screened at a 2012 retrospective on Shindō and Kōzaburō Yoshimura in London, organised by the British Film Institute and the Japan Foundation.[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "第五福竜丸". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  2. 1 2 "第五福竜丸". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  3. ↑ "Two Masters of Japanese Cinema: Kaneto Shindo & Kozaburo Yoshimura at BFI Southbank in June and July 2012" (PDF). Japan Foundation. Retrieved 18 July 2023.


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