The Eleventh Hour
109 mins
Based on a 1956 television feature on Japan’s national network, NHK, this is one of Uchida’s rarest films. A socially conscious drama with a contemporary backdrop, Dotanba focuses on the attempts to rescue a group of trapped miners. The title is a figure of speech — (essentially “last minute” or “eleventh hour”) — that refers to a situation of peril. The film boasts a script co-written by Uchida and Akira Kurosawa’s frequent screenwriter, Shinobu Hashimoto, and stars Kurosawa’s frequent star Takashi Shimura.
Jiro Takagi
Newspaper Reporter A
Shin Tonomura
Kusaka
Ei Iwagami
Ishigaki
Jun Mita
Takada
Kōji Takishima
Nakatsu
Kazuo Nakano
Oyama
Shiko Saito
Director Yoshikawa
Kentaro Taki
Director Ueda
Yōyō Kojima
Kaichi Yui
Itaru Hamada
Yamaguchi's father
Eri Tsuruma
Toshi Noda
Rikiya Iwaki
Yoshino
Tokio Kozuka
Nishiyama
Yuji Kitamine
Reporter C
Tadashi Minamikawa
Broadcaster A
Hiroshi Asahina
Broadcast Reporter B
Masazumi Okabe
Messenger
Tadashi Suganuma
Diver
Kyosuke Makino
Doctor
Yoshitaka Kosugi
Murase
Katsuya Ishimaru
Noda
Shozo Hirogami
Sound Recordist
Shizuka Fujii
Director of Photography
Mikio Mori
Art Direction
Taichiro Kosugi
Original Music Composer
Fumio Soda
Editor