Marching On

Made to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Shochiku’s entry into film production, this epic war movie and romance took more than a year to film, and cost the equivalent of several billion yen in today’s money. The film tells the story of Koichi Shinohara (Denmei Suzuki), who has set his heart on becoming an aviator, and of his romance with Toshiko (Kinuyo Tanaka), whose brother Shiro (Minoru Takada) is a military pilot. Ushihara elegantly dovetails the hero’s romantic travails as he seeks to win his girl with his efforts to master the skills of aviation. —Alexander Jacoby & Johan Nordström