Tokyo Olympiad (1965)
Grade: 84
The Summer Olympics were held in Tokyo in 1964, the first time that the games were hosted in Asia. "Tokyo Olympiad" is an excellent documentary of the '64 games, with the focus on cinematography over narration.
Director Kon Ichikawa has no interest in counting gold medals. Watching this film will not tell you whether the U.S. or the U.S.S.R. won the most medals. Ichikawa also makes little use of human interest stories. We learn that the Ethiopian who won the marathon had his appendix removed the month before. We briefly follow the story of an obscure athlete from Chad, a country participating in their first Olympics with only two athletes in their delegation. That's about it for human interest, which is a fixation for American broadcast journalists during the games. Another surprise is the disinterest in men's basketball, which receives about two seconds of coverage, the same as the water polo final.
The final surprise, at least for me, is that Germany competed as a single team. Given the virility of the cold war during the previous four years (the Berlin Wall, the Berlin airlift, the Cuban Missle crisis, the Bay of Pigs) it must have been inspiring for Germans to see athletics overcoming politics.
The cinematography is outstanding. There are many close-ups and slow-mo shots of athletes in action. The camera captures the emotions of the competitors, from the tension before an event to the joy, exhaustion, and/or disappointment that follows. The narration is in Japanese of course, with partial subtitles in English. Being unable to understand the occasional jabbering may actually be a plus, as the viewer can concentrate on the photography.
Some of the athletes became famous, like sprinter Bob Hayes or boxer Joe Frazier. But even the gold medal winners are mostly obscure today, their fleeting moment of glory captured in time but now forgotten.
"Tokyo Olympiad" is nearly three hours long, but the documentary never drags. It was distributed in America in a heavily edited version with insipid dubbed narration, but now the original is available again. "Chariots of Fire" has the reputation of being the best film about the Olympics. But "Tokyo Olympiad" is easily the better film.
kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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