Tôkyô orinpikku

It pales in comparison to Olympia, that gorgeous Olympic documentary made during the 1936 Olympics by the Nazis' head filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl, but Kon Ichiwa's Tokyo Olympiad is quite a good film itself. It documents the 1964 Olympics, the first ever to be held in Asia. Like Riefenstahl, Kon Ichiwa attempts to construct a document of abstract beauty out of these amazing athletes, a testament to the human form. He succeeds at times, but it's too much just a document of the events at times and too little abstraction. And I can only watch so much running before I get bored! The film has its high points and low points. The best moments are during the opening and closing ceremonies, the bicycle race, volleyball, race walking, the marathon finale, and especially the gymnastics, which end the first half of the film. The gymnastics competition is the only sequence in the film that hits the same level as Olympia. It's also nice to see the events in color (there are a couple, notably the amazing hammer throw, in b&w). The black and white cinematography is beautiful in Olympia, but its even more wonderous to see the oranges of the sun and the Olympic flame and the colors of the flags and the athletes' multi-hued uniforms. And the widescreen cinematography is often gorgeous, although I don't necessarily think that a wider screen, just because it shows more action, is better than the old Academy ratio of 1.33:1. Riefenstahl used that aspect ratio masterfully, as Ichiwa does here. Perhaps the most disappointing part of the film is that we only get to see about thirty seconds of a boxing match with Joe Frazier, the only athlete whom I (and probably everyone else as well) recognized in the film (and then Ichiwa follows him most of the way to the locker room, until Frazier turns around and waves goodbye). There is, however, a high jumper from the U.S. near the beginning of the film named John Rambo. I don't think there's any relation between him and the psycho Vietnam soldier. Much of the second half is dull, and there are several events almost cruelly ignored. Well, maybe not ignored, but, for instance, there is perhaps half a minute of basketball. Perhaps it was an unpopular sport in Japan.

This documentary of the 1964 Summer Olympics is a made up of a series of visual impressions with minimal narration that are are arranged in sequence from the opening to the closing ceremonies. It is excellent. Due attention is given to the host country but the high points of this Olympics are touched upon in a very moving way through superb photography and scenes of human interest.

The viewers see the history of the Olympic Torch and the excitement in Japan as the flame is lighted. The opening ceremonies show Hirohito, the longtime emperor of Japan as he stands in tribute for the March of the Athletes. There are cutaways to the Crown Prince and other members of the family who take in the games. We see a short profile of an athlete of the 3-member team from the new country of Chad. We see a series of competitions at one point that highlights a wrestling match with men in thick kimonos trying to pin down the opponent using very strange contortions. We watch athletes in short sprints that are over in seconds. There is a view of cyclists who speed by the camera in a quick blur. An aerial scene shows the winding line of cyclists who stream by like slow moving chariots seen from above. Some prominent athletes appear like 18 year old Don Schollander of the USA who won five medals at the games; Joe Frazier, a rival of Muhammed Ali aka Cassius Clay, who repeated Clay's gold medal victory of 1960 while fighting with a broken thumb; and the legendary Adebe Bikila, who won his second consecutive Olympic marathon.

Director Kon Ichikawa has left a monumental work that celebrates the ideals and traditions of the Olympics. Though three hours long, it had to be edited down and the result is still a wonderful tribute to the Olympics.

A true celebration of the poetry of the human body, as athletes attempt to live up to the Olympic motto, "Citius, Altius, Fortius," Faster, Higher, Stronger.

Director Kon Ichikawa knew that impressionistic images of the athletes, audience, and even those working at the games held great power, and used cinematic artistry instead of giving viewers a dry accounting of the results for all events. The way he shot this was brilliant. There's a medley of long shots, close-ups, unique camera angles, and an attention to little details that are completely irrelevant to the outcome of events, and yet are strangely compelling. He isolates sounds the athletes were making, e.g. Footfalls, shot put landings, the whoosh of an athlete swinging around on the uneven bar, and integrates it with other elements of the soundtrack which gives the documentary an epic feel.

He tells the human story of some of the athletes but even there he uses a light touch, not expounding on all of the details in the packaged, glitzy form you might see in modern games. This feels very much like the things that caught his eye as an observer, spanning the gamut from sublime moments of athletic achievement to silly little rituals or facial expressions. He realizes an athlete from Chad is older than his country, and shows not just his race (where he didn't qualify for the final) but also him quietly eating in isolation from other athletes afterwards. At other moments he focuses on those who have fallen or are struggling to finish, something the epitomized the spirit of the games well.

There are drawbacks to this approach, however. The coverage of the events is uneven to say the least, with some getting less than a minute and others going on for so long that my attention wandered. Because he's presenting this more as art as opposed to journalism, we're not told of some of the more interesting aspects of the games. Some examples: the 1-0 result of the field hockey final between bitter rivals India and Pakistan, the fact that Joe Frazier (initially just a reserve) was boxing with a broken thumb en route to his gold medal, how Ann Packer of England was originally going to take a shopping trip instead of run the 800m, and had only run five 800m domestic races before winning gold, and how gymnast Larisa Latynina of the USSR set the lifetime record for medals (18!) at these games (one which stood until Michael Phelps came along).

We don't hear of how Billy Mills from the United States was an Oglala Lakota Native-American who was a virtual unknown going into the games, making his stunning gold in the 10km race one of the greatest upsets of all time, or how the Olympic torch was lit by a man who was born on the day of the Hiroshima bombing. We also don't see anything at all of the basketball final between undefeated Cold War rivals USA and USSR, but do see quite a bit of coverage for events that Japan medaled in. It can't all be presented given the sheer breadth of the games, and one person's interests are bound to be different from another's, but those were some of the things that ended up a little frustrating for me, much as I admired how artistic the documentary was.

Captures the intensity and drama of Olympic competition and it's nice to learn about athletes of whom I was ignorant, like Ann Packer, as well as to be reminded of the glories of ones I'd forgotten, like Bob Hayes. Still, unless you're an OG junkie, which I, most sedulously, am not, then three hours of this is at least one too many. And I really coulda done without the 30 min opening ceremonies slash Japanese nationalist infomercial in the beginning. B minus.

See, I usually find watching sports boring as hell, but the way this is shot and assembled makes them compelling. And I did love the focus on things other than the sports themselves- the drink stations in the marathon, the weather conditions, the Olympic village, and of course the overview of the Olympics history + the opening ceremony at the film's beginning, which was probably overall my favourite sequence. The shots of Japan from the air, as well as that long shot of the runner with the torch ascending the staircase to light the flame are staggering.

Almost all the individual segments are fantastic, though. And it moves fast enough so if you don't find a sport particularly compelling (shotput was a snooze for me, and I don't like the weightlifting because it makes me incredibly uneasy and nervous), there will soon enough be a new sport covered. The filmmakers also had a good sense of how to long spend on each sport, and by and large made almost all of them cinematic in some way.

There's too many highlights to mention. Other than the opening, I did love the cycling and marathon (seeing the Japanese landscapes helped), and the USSR vs Japan in the women's volleyball final was fantastic, too. And don't know if this counts as a spoiler, but the story of the runner from the young nation of Chad was quite heartbreaking.

I have no idea how some of the shots in this were pulled off. Music is generally quite good too, and the voiceover/commentary was appreciated, too.

Even though I'm Australian, I couldn't help but want Japan to win most of the time. They seem like such wonderful people, as well as excellent hosts for a huge event like this.

From the shot of the rising sun at the beginning to the shot of the setting or rising sun (couldn't tell to be honest) at the end, I was really engaged, and even moved, particularly at the beginning and especially the end.

See, even if you don't like watching sports, or are intimidated by a nearly 3-hour runtime on a documentary, I would still highly recommend watching this. If it counts as a sports movie, it might well be one of my all-time favourites, and as far as documentaries go, it's an excellent example of that genre near its very best, too.

It might even be a suitable alternative to anyone disappointed about not getting any Tokyo Olympics in 2020.