Castle of Sand
Yoshitaro Nomura / JP, 1974 / 143 min.
Tragic detective film that criss-crosses rural Japan in search of the solution to a murder mystery. According to Japanese critics, Nomura's classic is still one of the best Japanese audience hits of all times.
A seasoned detective and his younger partner are investigating the murder of Miki, a beloved police officer and pillar of the community, but they can’t find a shred of motive. The Castle of Sand is based on Seicho Matsumoto's hugely popular novel, published in 1960. The story, convincingly brought to life by Nomura, shows a damaged society dominated by suspicion. This film was fourteen years in the making by studio Shochiku, which in 1974 was trying to make films for the mass audiences that at that time had deserted the cinemas for television.
Details
Director
Yoshitaro Nomura
Production year
1974
Country
JP
Original title
Suna no utsuwa
Length
143 min.
Language
Japanese
Subtitles
ENG
Format
35mm
Part of
Shochiku 100
Yasujiro Ozu, Masaki Kobayashi, Takeshi Kitano: the masters of Japanese cinema. But did you know that their work was made possible by Shochiku? In 2022 Eye is marking over one hundred years of one of Japan’s oldest, and largest, film companies.
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