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Tokyo Olympiad

49 votes

This impressionistic portrait of the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics pays as much attention to the crowds and workers as it does to the actual competitive events. Highlights include an epic pole-vaulting match between West Germany and America, and the final marathon race through Tokyo's streets. Two athletes are highlighted: Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila, who receives his second gold medal, and runner Ahamed Isa from Chad, representing a country younger than he is.

Status: Released

Released Date: 1965-03-20

Runtime: 170 mins

Director: Kon Ichikawa

Writer: Kon Ichikawa, Yoshio Shirasaka, Natto Wada

Spoken language: 日本語

Genres: Documentary

Original title: Tokyo Olympiad

Production Companies: Tokyo Olympic Film Association, TOHO

Production Countries: Japan

Cast

Abebe Bikila

Ahmed Issa

Yoshinori Sakai

Joe Frazier

Emperor Hirohito of Japan

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Reviews

Geronimo1967

Television sport coverage was so often a fertile source of innovation and this couple of hours of highlights from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics showcases that really well. Initially, though, we focus a little on the rejuvenating effects of getting the games in your city. Demolition of derelict areas and the construction of new facilities designed to last well beyond the fortnight of the Games. Thence to an opening ceremony that sees the USA and the USSR walking just feet apart (with no obvious defections) before the Emperor opens the world’s only truly global exercise in competitive excellence. Now the editorial does rather follow the requirements of the paymasters at bit, so some nations feature far more than others but in the main this showcases well the strenuous and impassioned performances of runners, jumpers, throwers, gymnast and shooters as the diverse nature of some nineteen sports feature. With the television production garnering expertise from nations around the world, we see more creative use of not just camera and microphone positions but also of filming techniques like slow-motion and head-on photography that enables the efforts of these characters to be writ large across their faces and bodies as we watch from the comfort of an armchair. It was the first Olympics to be filmed largely in colour, to be fed live to many countries and it was significant for it’s ban on any form of racial segregation amongst the teams. The commentaries are maybe not the most informative, especially as the teams parade for the flag parades, and some of the references: 17 decimal 45 rather than 17.45 sound a bit quaint now, but that all adds to the richness of an event that illustrated signs of a post WWII worldly reconciliation. The editing doesn’t always look the most natural - watch the women’s shot put coverage, for example, but even there we get a sense of just how tough it can be lugging a 4lb cannon ball fifty foot into the air. There are no talking heads nor interviews, just a fairly comprehensive compendium of sporting activity peppered with a little social commentary and if it inspires anyone to look at an whole range of what they call “Official Films” from the Olympics, then it could serve to explore not just the evolution of sport but also of television coverage thereof.

2025-06-09

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