Kato hayabusa sento-tai (1944) User Reviews (4)

Excellent Japanese Wartime Production

[gordonl56 · 8/10 · 5 March 2016]

Kato Hayabusa Sento-Tai 1944

This is a wartime flag waver made by the Japanese about the wartime exploits of Japanese Army Air Force officer, Tateo Kato. The film follows Kato (Susmua Fujita) as he joins the elite 64th Sentai (Fighter Group) of the Japanese Army Air Force. The film is set just before the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec 7th 1941.

The film shows Sino-Japanese War veteran Kato leading the group on the first raids against the British in Malaya. The 64th mows down the opposing Brewster Buffalo fighters and out of date Wildebeest torpedo bombers flown by the British RAF. After a few weeks of this, the group is then assigned to escort paratroop transport aircraft in the capture of the oilfields on Borneo.

Again the group is successful with minimum losses. After helping with the conquering of the Dutch East Indies, the 64th is then transferred to Burma. Here, the group clashes with Hawker Hurricanes of the RAF as well as P-40s of the Flying Tigers unit.

The film shows how the unit led by Kato deals with the mounting losses. The unit battles on overcoming the opposing Allied forces as well as a lack of replacements, and a host of jungle diseases etc. It is now well into 1942 and the Allied Air Forces are becoming a tougher opponent. The RAF is becoming quite good at hit and run bombing raids on the Japanese airfields. This forces Kato to keep standing patrols of fighters at the ready.

It is after one of these raids that the unit commander, Kato, is shot down over the sea while pursuing several Blenheim bombers. Kato was credited with at least 18 victories at the time of his death on May 22 1942. The 64th was credited as a whole with 260 plus kills with only 40 losses during Kato's tenure as commander.

This Toho production is quite well made with plenty of well mounted combat scenes and superb model work. The use of real KI-43 Hayabusa fighters is a must see for ww2 aircraft buffs. The production also has several captured P-40s being used in the various dogfight actions.

The KI-43 (Peregrine Falcon) (Allied code name: Oscar) was probably the most manoeuvrable fighter flown by either side in the war. It could even out turn the better known ZERO fighter of the Japanese Navy. It was however lightly built and under gunned compared to Allied aircraft. The Allies soon learned to use their better speed and armament to advantage and avoid engaging in dogfights with the "Oscar".

"The War God Does Not Return"

[boblipton · 6/10 · 5 January 2019]

This is a biopic of Lt. Colonel Tateo Kato of the Japanese Air Force, and his command, from his taking command of the 64th Sentai in 1941 to his reported death on 22 May of 1942. It was directed by Kajiro Yamamoto, now best remembered as Kurosawa's mentor; Kurosawa was an assistant director on 17 of his pictures. Ishiro Honda was the credited A.D. on this picture.

War pilot pictures were a frequent genre, both before the war and during it. This one partakes of many of the standard tropes of such: the victories, the high-spirited pilots, and the deaths of the pilots and the rituals of remembrance. Where this movie differs is in the lack of internal conflict. In American movies of the era, there would be the wise commander, and the insubordinate subordinate who wants to fight the war on his own terms and in his own way. In many ways, such films were frequently about the education of the younger man about th ways of war and his need to dedicate himself to the common good. There's none of that here. All of the flying officers are dedicated to the war, and there are frequent references to samurai. None of them resent Kato; they admire him and feel he is a caring, dedicated officer; one officer speaks of their need to "perfect" themselves in the manner of Kato.

One stylistic feature strikes me as old-fashioned. The battle sequences are titled, and the titles seem narrative, as if they were to be read by benshi.

Many of the cast and the crew would become better known in the West because they would appear in Kurosawa's pictures. Yamamoto had been writing and directing movies since 1924 and would continue to do so until 1967, seven years before his death.

spiritist hero

[zangiku · 8/10 · 20 August 2015]

there is a story, possibly apocryphal, about the film's star fujita susumu fearing he would be hanged as a war criminal by the US occupation because he had been the hero of so many spiritist war films.

by "spiritist" is meant the doctrine, washed wholesale into Japanese brains, that japan could win a war against overwhelmingly superior stores of men & materiel simply by the raw power of the (overwhelmingly superior) Japanese Spirit. that is, if you screamed "emperor banzai!" loudly enough while plummeting to your death, if your eyes spun in demented spirals while barking out army songs, if everyone did this wholeheartedly in imitation of the crazed uniforms on screen... well gosh-darn-it, how could japan not win? it did not, but many fine actors got work in the service of this madness, and of them fujita was by far the finest. he was convincing precisely because he was not crazed & barking, but instead a wholesome, adorable, levelheaded, cheerful boy-next-door who had somehow rendered himself whole cloth into a vessel of the imperial ideal & was living solely for sacrifice.

it is a calm & understated, perfectly centered performance which quietly & inexorably steals our hearts away until we are so wholly identified with col. kato (regardless of our sex or creed) that we become him, we follow him anywhere...including ultimately, of course, to his death, with similar smiles on our faces.

even at this distance of 70 years we feel this. he comes striding out of the screen to suck us in. it is only with the utmost difficulty one struggles free of his magnetism to observe with horror that this hunky tanned body & gleaming white grin are entirely devoted to death.

it is a performance for the ages, the only entirely convincing & sympathetic spiritist hero on screen. no wonder he was afraid macarthur would kill him.

also noteworthy are the many reels of spectacular air warfare, both authentic & also magicked by special effects wizard tsuburaya eiji, who later came down in the world to create godzilla.

one of the very best war films ever made.

FYI available on Japanese DVD & also posted (as of 5/15) on the usual site with good English subtitles.

Japan gets high marks for 1944 air force film

[dvernon30 · 10/10 · 10 March 2001]

War-time Japan produced a number of excellent motion pictures regarding its military. One of those films, a product of the Toho Motion Picture Company, was the 1944 production of 'Kato Hayabusa Sentotai' (Kato's Perigrin Falcon Squadron). Col. Kato was indeed a real officer serving with the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in Southeast Asia...an officer highly respected by his pilots for his fairness and excellent flying ability. The aircraft he and his men flew was the Nakajima Ki-43 'Hayabusa' fighter. One of the many highlights of the production was the use of the actual type aircraft used by the Kato squadron. Along with the realistic action, the acting and direction were superb. I would say that this feature is above par should it be compared with other films of this type including those produced in the United States and Europe. The motion picture was shot in black and white, and is about two hours in length.