Siege of Fort Bismarck

**Siege of Fort Bismarck** (青島要塞爆撃命令, *Chintao yôsai bakugeki meirei*) is a 1963 Japanese war film directed by Kengo Furusawa and special effects work by Eiji Tsuburaya. It was released on May 23, 1963 by Toho Production. This movie was shot in color and cinemascope (TohoScope). Another side-by-side project is "Zoku shachô gaiyûki" (directed by Shūe Matsubayashi), which is one of the installment of the "Shacho Series". The film was written by screenwriter Katsuya Susaki, had wrote many war films such as Attack Squadron! and Submarine I-57 Will Not Surrender. Kengo Furusawa also directed the comedy film Nippon musekinin yaro in 1962. Cinematographer Fukuzo Koizumi also filmed the scene he did in Sensation Seekers (directed by Jun Fukuda).

## Siege of Fort Bismarck

### Directed by

Kengo Furusawa (main story)
Eiji Tsuburaya (special effects)

### Starring

Yūzō Kayama
Yosuke Natsuki
Makoto Satō
Ryō Ikebe
Mie Hama

### Language

Japanese
German
Chinese
English

## Background

The film is set in World War I, which is rare for a Japanese movie. Based on a real Siege of Tsingtao, it depicts a team of aviators (who are pilots for the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service) are on a dangerous mission to destroy all German defense fortresses before the Allies could land their forces to occupied the port city. In overseas country like the United States and Europe, it was released under the title, "Siege of Fort Bismarck".

In addition to the usual Japanese subtitles lined up in the right corners of the screen, the lines of the German soldiers in this film are other works such as handwritten subtitles such as "The enemy is brave!" and "The bottom is brave!" The production has not been premiered in Germany.

## Special effects

In order to shoot the film, in addition to the elaborate two aircraft miniatures like the Farman MF.11 and the Etrich Taube with a wingspan of 1 meter or more, a full-scale model for shooting the main story with a propeller rotating was produced.

In both cases, the filming was done in addition to the set, and on Mt. Fuji, it was hung from a helicopter. The full-scale model of the Farman MF.11 was assembled by a craftsman specializing in gliders by borrowing the actual machine in the disassembled state saved by the Japan Aeronautic Association and creating a restoration drawing.

The Japanese seaplane carrier Wakamiya was also photographed using a cargo ship. The scene on the ship was shot on the battleship "Mikasa", preserved at the Mikasa Park. The set of Bismarck Fortress was also taken from a helicopter with a huge open set in Gotemba. However, at the time of production, the position of the gunpowder was not known from the helicopter, and the timing of shooting was about 4 out of 10 shots.

The bullet-carrying train that appears at the climax was custom-made in a steel miniature and was shot with an unmanned camera that was also partially used in Godzilla. This miniature was exhibited at the 2012 event "Director Hideaki Anno Special Effects Museum Showa Heisei Techniques Seen in Miniatures".

## Plot

As the Great War broke out in 1914, Europe is at war with each other. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany send a telegraph to the German concession of Kiautschou Bay led by naval Captain and Governor Alfred Meyer-Waldeck to set up a garrison around the port city of Tsingtao, which harbor supplies for the German East Asiatic Squadron of the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy). These fortresses consist of Fort Bismarck, Fort Iltis and Fort Moltke. They also build their defensive positions in each different hills such as Mount Moltke, Mount Bismarck, Prince Heinrich Hill, and Mount Iltis (from the Kaiserstuhl to Litsuner Heights).

The Germans had to protect their colonies from Allied forces. After Japan joined the war on the Allied side on August 23, the Japanese military began to devised a plan with the British (as part of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902) by forming a landing/naval/air group in order to destroyed the German fuel dumps and ammo depots. The military command created the Oppama Aviation Research Department, a group consisting of voluntary aviator cadets. These includes Major Osugi, Lieutenant Kunii, Lieutenant Ninomiya, and Lieutenant Maki were eager to fly the newly Farman MF.11 aircraft that they bought from France.

A dispatch order was given to Osugi by Sadakichi Kato, and seaplane carrier Wakamiya, carrying two planes, was dispatched toward Jiaozhou Bay where the German set up ports for their ships for supplies.

Along the way, they stopped by the base of the fleet and received instructions from the Secretary of the Navy. They set a base in Lingshan Island to created an élite task force. On the island Maki saved a Chinese girl name Yang Baili, who was being teased by Japanese sailors. However, they learned that Baili was attempting to blow up the Wakamiya with his lover, who was a Chinese activist. But Baili's lover was shot in killed by German colonial police and Baili ended up getting arrested, but was released because she is a woman and had no evidence about her involvement in the resistance group.

One day, the group set out on a mission to destroyed Fort Bismarck, but the bomb they dropped didn't detonate. Suddenly, one of Maki and Ninomiya's plane got engine trouble during combat with the Etrich Taube plane and crash landed in the enemy's territory. The two escaped well and were hidden in a Chinese villager house, but were caught by German patrols led by Lieutenant Berge. The two pilots were was put in a German cell at their fortress where a German pilot Lieutenant Berge (based on Gunther Plüschow) bring the coffin of a dead pilot from the dogfight. They also meet Lieutenant Lange, commander of the fortress sent by Governor Waldeck himself. At that time, the headquarters was also instructed to carry out a total attack on the Allies by bombarding the the fleet.

On the other hand, Ninomiya and Maki succeeded in escaping by successfully destroying the enemy's supply dumps with the help of Baili while being escorted, but on the way to escape, the suspension bridge fell under heavy fire and the three were caught in a torrent. Maki, who was thought to have killed in combat, returned alone, and Osugi, who learned the secret of Bismarck's defense strength, decided to attack the base by himself. But that required group of task force to load gasoline and ammunition on the plane within the German position. The place where they arrived after breaking through all the obstacles was the endless flark called Doronuma.

The Wakamiya sank there, and the Farman aircraft, which is now one, appeared and arrived at Doronuma flark. They left with a bomb full of swamps. Maki, who soared into the sky, attacked the Bismarck battery and destroyed it, making way for a joint Anglo-Japanese forces to take Tsingtao, which led Waldeck and his remaining troops surrendered to the Allies on November 7, 1914.

## Cast

* Yūzō Kayama as Lieutenant Kunii
* Makoto Satō as Lieutenant Maki
* Yosuke Natsuki as Lieutenant Ninomiya
* Ryō Ikebe as Major Osugi
* Mie Hama as Yang Baili (Yang Hakurei in both English and European versions)
* Susumu Fujita as Admiral Katō Sadakichi
* Akihiko Hirata as Captain Yoshikawa
* Jun Tazaki as Navy Staff Murata
* Tôru Ibuki as Navy Candidate Shoji
* Masahiko Naruse as Zhao Hidetoshi
* Kan Yanagiya as Captain Toda
* Yasuhisa Tsutsumi as Sergeant Ota
* Gen Shimizu, Kōzō Nomura, Shin Otomo as Fleet Staffs
* Shoichi Hirose as non-commissioned guard officer
* Akira Wakamatsu, Akira Yamada as Supply crew member
* Bokuzen Hidari as Ox cart master
* Toyohiko Sata as Elderly man
* Yoshinobu Kaneko as Village boy
* Akio Kusama, Katsumi Tezuka as Fleet sailors
* Masanari Nihei, Yutaka Oka, Yukihiko Gondo as sailors making fun of Yang Hakurei
* Seiji Yoshida, Yoshiyuki Uemura as Patrol guards
* Ralph Jesser (credited as Rolf Jessup) as Lieutenant Berge
* Werna Wentz as Captain Lange
* Osman Yusuf as Prison guard
* Gunta Romenas as Train guard
* Erie Landsman as Institutional worker
* Jesse Iyunen as Watchman guard
* Harold Conway as British Brigadier-General Nathaniel Walter Barnardiston
* Sabel Jameel as Russian General Aleksei Brusilov
* Arthur Robillard as French General Philippe Henri Joseph d'Anselme
* Gorō Naya as Narrator

## Staff

* Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka
* Screenwriter: Katsuya Susaki
* Director: Kengo Furusawa
* Cinematographer: Fukuzô Koizumi
* Music Composer: Hachirô Matsui
* Production Designer: Takeo Kita
* Lighting Technician: Mitsuo Kaneko
* Sound Recordist: Toshiya Ban
* Photographer: Takashi Iwai
* Film Editor: Yoshitami Kuroiwa
* Sound Effects Editor: Hisashi Shimonaga
* Chief Assistant Director: Kôji Kajita

### Special Effects:

* Sadamasa Arikawa (special effects cameraman)
* Kyuichirô Kishida (special effects lighting)
* Keiji Koike (special effects coordinator)
* Yukio Manoda (special effects assistant camera)
* Hiroshi Mukoyama (matte work)
* Teruyoshi Nakano (chief assistant director of special effects)
* Sokei Tomioka (special effects cameraman)
* Eiji Tsuburaya (special effects director)
* Akira Watanabe (special effects art director)
* Taka Yuki (special effects assistant camera)

## Software

The video was released by Toho (commentary by film critic Sadao Yamane) and was made into a DVD in 2007. It was re-released in 2015 and later it was released in HD on Prime Video Japan.