A sort of cross between 'Only Angels Has Wings' and 'The VIPs' set in an airfield surrounded by picturesquely snowy wastes in Hokkaido; it was released the day before Hiroshima was bombed, thus promptly rendering its inspiring message to the home front rather obsolete.
Although the film is set in wartime with a heroine whose brother died in action in Burma, the graceful direction by a name new to me, aided by fluid camerawork by Kurosawa's later regular collaborator Asaichi Nakai gives it a rather thirties feel, as does the melancholy saxophone score on the soundtrack. It also has a rather Soviet feel in it's emphasis on the role of women in uniform (throughout the film they are referred to as "female-radio-operators" as if it's one word; which in Japanese it is), with the heroine proving her mettle on "a crucial mission" facilitated by model work by special effects veteran Eiji Tsuburaya (who later worked on the Godzilla movies).
Although the film is set in wartime with a heroine whose brother died in action in Burma, the graceful direction by a name new to me, aided by fluid camerawork by Kurosawa's later regular collaborator Asaichi Nakai gives it a rather thirties feel, as does the melancholy saxophone score on the soundtrack. It also has a rather Soviet feel in it's emphasis on the role of women in uniform (throughout the film they are referred to as "female-radio-operators" as if it's one word; which in Japanese it is), with the heroine proving her mettle on "a crucial mission" facilitated by model work by special effects veteran Eiji Tsuburaya (who later worked on the Godzilla movies).