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The Big Wave
The Big Wave
	Theatrical release poster
Japanese name
Kanji	大津波
Revised Hepburn
Transcriptions
Revised Hepburn	Daitsunami
Directed by	Tad Danielewski
Screenplay by	Pearl S. Buck; Tad Danielewski
Based on	The Big Wave; by Pearl S. Buck
Produced by	Pearl S. Buck; Tad Danielewski
Starring	Sessue Hayakawa; Mickey Curtis; Kōji Shitara; Hiroyuki Ōta;
Cinematography	Kazuo Yamazaki
Edited by	Akikazu Kōno
Music by	Toshiro Mayuzumi
Production; companies	Stratton Productions; Toho;
Distributed by	Allied Artists Pictures
Release dates	April 1962 (United States); October 29, 2005 (Unzen);
Running time	73 minutes
Countries	United States; Japan
Language	English

The Big Wave (Japanese: 大津波, Hepburn: Daitsunami, lit. 'The Giant Tsunami') is a 1961 disaster drama film directed by Tad Danielewski, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced by Stratton Productions and Toho, it is based on Pearl S. Buck's 1948 novel of the same name.^[3] The film stars Sessue Hayakawa, Mickey Curtis, Kōji Shitara, and Hiroyuki Ōta. In the film, two boys living in a village that is occasionally threatened by a volcano and tidal waves fall in love with the same woman.

Four years after they developed The Big Wave into a television play and founded Stratton Productions, Buck and Danielewski started production on the film in 1960; Buck visited Japan on May 24 and held a meeting on the film's production. Principal photography began in September 1960 and was reported to have been completed on January 3, 1961.

The Big Wave was released in the United States in April 1962. The film was screened in Unzen, Nagasaki, Japan at Unzen Memorial Hall on October 29, 2005.

Cast

Mickey Curtis as Yukio
- - Hiroyuki Ōta as young Yukio
Ichizo Atami as Toru
- Kōji Shitara as young Toru
Sessue Hayakawa as the Old Gentleman^[5]
Rumiko Sasa as Setsu
- Judy Ongg as young Setsu
Reiko Higa as Haruko
- Sachiko Atami as young Haruko
Heihachiro Okawa as Yukio's father
Chieko Murata as Yukio's mother
Tetsu Nakamura as Toru's father
Noriko Sengoku as Toru's mother
Frank Tokunaga as Toru's grandfather

Production

Development

Four years after they developed The Big Wave into a television play and founded Stratton Productions,^[6] Pearl S. Buck and Tad Danielewski started creating the novel into a film in 1960; Buck visited Japan on May 24 and held a meeting on the film's production.^[7]

Filming

Principal photography began in September 1960^[8] and was reported to have been completed on January 3, 1961.^[9] The film was shot near Nagasaki^[10] on the island of Kyushu,^[11] at Unzen City^[12] and in Obama.^[13]

Special effects

The film's special effects were directed by Eiji Tsuburaya.^[12] Tsuburaya made sketches of the tsunami sequence he was appointed to stage for the film and presented them to Buck and the additional co-producers. Buck called the sketches as "startlingly accurate water colors of the rising horizon, the onrushing wave, and the towering crash of the crest." During the meeting, Tsuburaya also announced plans to recreate the fishing village depicted in the film by taking his cameraman along with him and photographing "everything".^[14]

While the crew was filming in Obama, Tsuburaya was staging the tsunami scene at Toho Studios in Tokyo. Buck stated that "twice he had come to Obama to consult and to take hundreds of pictures of Kitsu and the empty beach beyond. We knew that we were in safe hands, the tidal wave would be perfect, but we could not see it until we returned to the city. Ours was the task of creating the approach to the wave, and the recovery from it."^[15]

Tsuburaya's effects were the final section of the film to be completed. In A Bridge for Passing, Buck described the last day of filming: "The famous special-effects artist was waiting for me, debonair in a new light suit and hat and with a cane. He had the confident air of one who knows that he has done a triumphantly good job, and after a survey of the scene I agreed with him. In a space as vast as Madison Square Garden in New York, which is the biggest place I can think of at the moment, he had reconstructed Kitsu, the mountains and the sea. The houses were three feet high, each in perfect miniature, and everything else was in proportion. A river ran outside the studio and the rushing water for the tidal wave would be released into the studio by great sluices along one side. I looked into the houses, I climbed the little mountain, I marveled at the exactitude of the beach, even to the rocks where in reality I had so often taken shelter. The set was not yet ready for the tidal wave. That I was to see later on the screen in all its power and terror. I had seen everything else, however, and I said farewell, gave thanks, and went away."^[16]

Release

The Big Wave was released in the United States in April 1962.^[3] The film was screened in Unzen, Nagasaki, Japan at Unzen Memorial Hall on October 29, 2005.^[12]

Notes

^ Since Mayuzumi was not in Japan, the majority of music for the film was composed by Tōru Takemitsu and Riichiro Manabe, according to the latter.^[1]