This is the Japan of my early childhood memories, brought to life by this film. I was a boy of 4 when I moved to Japan in 1956, so seeing this movie which was shot at the same time I lived there was a great thrill. It was the travelogue aspect of the movie that particularly interested me: the vignette in the geisha house; the vignette in the Japanese theater;street scenes; railroad stations; etc. The plot was relatively simple. Cameron Mitchell and Theresa Wright were convincing as the worried married couple desperately trying to find their missing son. But the flattering portrayal of the Japanese people and the reverence shown for Japanese landmarks and its cultural is the real eye opener. Since it was made in 1957, I'm assuming it was to show Americans how their perceptions of the Japanese may have been wrong. I know that having there for 4 years, we couldn't have been treated more kindly than we were by our Japanese friends, neighbors, and co-workers. I thank Turner Classic Movies for showing it.
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theowinthrop16 July 2006This film has a soft spot in me - the film was one of the first movies I ever attended in a movie house. Probably my parents took me to see it because Jon Provost was in it, and I was a fan of the series LASSIE. However it was on a double bill, and I believe it was with PETER PAN (the first Disney cartoon I saw in a movie house). I know I enjoyed it.
A boy of three or four can barely remember details, but this film was very colorfully shot. It was one of a series of films of all types (SAYONARA, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, A MAJORITY OF ONE) where Hollywood was trying to make amends to the Japanese for the caricatures of their military and leaders that were shown in the 1940s.
The plot was that Provost gets separated from his parents in an accident off Japan, and ends up with a Japanese family. Soon he is paling around with that family's son, and they are unaware of the efforts by the U.S. and Provost's family to find him. Instead, when the police seem to be trying to catch him, Provost and his friend jump to the conclusion that they've done something criminal, and they run away. The film follows their constantly just escaping the police, until the conclusion (reminiscent of the conclusion in THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING) where everyone has to rescue the boys from a roof. It was a very exciting conclusion (and the music in those last moments helped really build up the suspense).
It was a good film, and a welcome introduction for the younger version of me to the pleasures of watching movies. -
Tokugawa19 August 2002I agree with other reviewers of this film. It is quite good. You can watch it just to see what Japan looked like in the 1950's. You can watch it to see Jon Provost's first role; we remember him from "Lassie". You can enjoy the chase. Pretty cinematography too; filmed in very nice color. Worth watching if you ever see it on cable or dish. Nice movie.
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mb408413 October 2003Caught this harmless little story on TV recently. In this film we can see Japan in the 1950s before the great economic breakthough. Nostalgic and fascinating period shots of cities, temples, steam trains, geisha houses etc. Better than some documentaries as a record of those times and it was good to see the kindness shown by all the Japanese characters towards the lost American boy. Both kids were sensible and well mannered.
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pleasant family fare which also makes an attempt to understand the Japanese & their culture..Attempts might seem dated now but in 1957 Pearl Harbor was still fresh in the minds of Americans..This film tries to overcome the animosities between the nations..Harmless, pleasant well paced and well acted..Jon Provost was a very good young actor.. as was the oriental young boy (sorry dont know his name)
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ma-cortes30 April 2020An american little boy saves himself from a crashed plane, being helped by a Japanese kid. The boy surviving a plane crash and his Japanese mate set out in look for their parents by going to city of Tokyo on their own. En route they become involved into several troubles , dangers and adventures. As they cross railway, meet some Geishas who dance for them, go up a temple and even watch a nude spectacle until a tense ending climax .
This amusing but so-so adventure with hilarious and fun incidents was shot on location in Japan. The picture is plenty of incidental pleasures when the little boys become involved in problems, as a sympathetic visit to a geisha house, leading to a thrilling climax at a temple with the children in maxim risk to fall down. Starred by two kids who decide to trek to Tokyo, they are pretty well and very likeable . While the veteran actors, Cameron Mitchell and Teresa Wright are just excellent as the anguished parents who attempt to track them down. Furthermore, Clnt Eastwood appears in a tiny character as a pilot.
It packs colorful and glimmer cinematograhy by George Snyder in a Technicolor treat, but a perfect remastering being extremely necessary. Evocative and adequate musical score by the classic composer Max Steiner. The motion picture was professionally directed by Arthir Lubin, though with no originality. Arthur was a good artisan who directed a lots of fillms, especially adventure and comedy genre, such as : Thief of Bagdad, Lady Godiva, Ali Baba and the forty thieves, Yellowstone, New Orleans, Hold that ghost, In the navy, Francis goes to West Point, Francis goes to the races, Francis covers the big town , Francis goes to Wacs, Francis in the Navy, Francis the talking mule, among others. Rating : 5.5/10. Passable and acceptable. -
SnoopyStyle23 August 2022Six year old Tony Saunders is flying alone on a commercial flight from Manila to Japan. He's to join his parents waiting in Tokyo. The plane crashes in the ocean and the boy is rescued by a fishing family. The family's boy Hiko is able to speak some English. Upon arriving home, the parents go to alert the police. Hiko fears that Tony is going to jail and the two boys run away.
This should cut back on some of the parents' scenes and add more with the kids. It's basically a Disney movie in exotic Japan. That part is a lot of fun and very cute. It is indeed an escapade in Japan. This is a good look into post-war everyday Japan. The parents part does have some good emotions but it threatens to be too melodramatic at times. The kids part is the best. The climax is a bit scary. This is a fun exotic escapade. -
johnnyherbert4 December 2018One of the earliest roles of Clint Eastwood. A plane on its way to Japan is forced to land at sea just off the Japanese coast. A small American boy survives the ditching but is separated from the rest of the passengers and crew and is picked up by a Japanese fisherman, who takes the boy back to his village. The boy is befriended by the fisherman's son, but when they see Japanese police swarming over the village, they are afraid that they've done something wrong and run away, although the police are only searching for the missing boy. There's not much here to see but this is a decent action flick.
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Prismark1023 September 2017Set in post war Japan. A flight crash lands and a 6 year old American boy is found by a fisherman who takes him to his house, his wife nurses him back to health. The young lad gets on well with the fisherman's son but when they hear that the police are arriving both boys think they are in trouble and leave for Tokyo.
Pretty soon both sets of distraught parents are looking for them as the boys to their best to evade the police and end up in bars and clubs.
This is an amiable but casual and contrived film, it really is a B feature because it stars Cameron Mitchell who was well known for them.
There are nice shots of post war Japan and shows mutual respect between the Americans and Japanese, laudable given this was made 11 years after the war ended. -
efisch9 September 2015Interesting travelogue, sort of like Cinerama travelogues of the time, with a storyline. The recent showing on TCM was in wide-screen Technirama, probably the only film produced by RKO made in this process. Universal acquired the film for distribution after RKO closed. The titles indicate the film was shot entirely in Japan and for the first time at Japanese cultural and religious shrines which look great in wide-screen. The exteriors look similar to Sayonara (also 1957) during a period when Japan/American relationships were on the mend. Everyone is really nice to one another. Good, colorful family movie, good production values, some spectacular scenery and great print.
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Leofwine_draca30 March 2018ESCAPADE IN JAPAN is a children's film made in the 1950s which gives viewers a chance to view post-war Japan, in terms of geography and society, in full-blooded colour. There's little more reason to tune in than that, however. A kid goes missing and is pursued by the authorities; it turns out he's gone on a road trip of sorts with a like-minded Japanese boy and together the two of them visit various locations. A youthful Cameron Mitchell plays the boy's worried father. The boy is played by the blond kid from LASSIE a few years before he got that role and became familiar to American TV viewers. The slight story feels dragged out to the nth degree and despite my love of Japan I found it rather boring.
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Kirasjeri29 January 2000Young Jon Provost, later to star in "Lassie", got his first notice in this charming story of a chase in 1950's Japan. He plays the son of an American couple working in Japan who survives a airplane ditching off the coastline; he got separated from the crew, and in the fog is picked up by a fisherman.
This Japanese fishing family befriends him, even though they cannot talk to him, not knowing English. The boy, however, fears he did something wrong when he sees many Japanese police searching the village. He flees, along with the slightly older son of the fisherman. Then begins the chase between the police and the American couple, and the two boys who fear the police only try to find you when you've done something wrong.
The bulk of the movie is of the two boys fleeing through Japan and seeing different and interesting sights on their odyssey. It is in effect a travelogue of post-war Japan. The final scenes on top of a tall Shinto religious temple are exciting enough.
Colorful, and good family fare, the film also was a clear attempt to ease hostilities between the United States and a Japan that just a decade before had been a hated enemy. They did this by showing the Japanese as human being as concerned about their missing son as the Americans were about theirs.
Recommended! Give it a try if you see it. -
r96sk9 January 2022Not sure if it's a good film or not all in all, but 'Escapade in Japan' is rather wholesome so I enjoyed it.
Can kid actors Jon Provost and Roger Nakagawa act? Not to be harsh, but no. However, that honestly doesn't even matter as they're extremely likeable and pretty adorable together across the film's plot. On the latter, it's a thin and far-fetched story, yet it works to create a cute adventure.
Cameron Mitchell and Teresa Wright are alright elsewhere on the cast, while Clint Eastwood makes his last fully uncredited role with a minor showing. The film missteps one or two times, but overall it's proper sweet. It also shows, from what I could tell anyway, Japanese culture off well, which wasn't always going to be case for a release from this era.
If you were to be critical it probably isn't all that, but it's charming and I'd undoubtedly watch it again. Deserves more eyes on it. -
ArtVandelayImporterExporter22 March 2023So says Clint Eastwood, as a pilot named, "Dumbo." This is even pre-Rawhide. One line. So he was working for scale.
Some brat gets on a plane in America to visit his folks in Japan. Plane runs into engine trouble and ditches in the sea. The kid is separated from the rest of the passengers and crew. Lots of fun as he finds his way back to civilization. That said, I got news for you people: Those foldable cards in the seatback pocket of the passengers in front of you are cartoon fiction. When planes fall out of the sky and hit the ocean all everyone aboard is torn to small pieces on impact. There are no survivors. Ever.
It's all slathered over with the most sickly goop of a Max Steiner score. By gawd that man was a musical hackenberg, capable of tearing a hole in the hull of any movie.
I suppose this was an attempt to normalize the Japanese, who were by then our industrial partner, rather than our world-war enemy. Fair enough. I'd rather watch a Kurosawa movie, myself. -
mark.waltz3 March 2022Children of all Races will find friendship in the easiest way when grown-ups don't intervene, and in the case of American boy Jon Provost ("Lassie") and the Japanese Roger Nakagawa, their friendship is based on the need for Nakagawa to protect him as a stranger in a strange land. Provost has survived the plane crash, and was discovered by the fisherman parents of Nakagawa floating in the ocean in a life raft. They take him in as people of good Nature's do, feed him, and try to figure out how to reunite him with his parents, Teresa Wright and Cameron Mitchell. They are having marital problems and needed time alone to sort them out so Wright had left Provost with relatives. The two boys decide to run away when they fear that police will arrest the young Provost and end up in Tokyo and other parts of the previously unseen Japan while Mitchell, Wright and Nakagawa's parents search valiantly for them.
A touching story that is a photographic look at postwar Japan and the values of real friendship. It is a sweet film that is done in the beautiful Technicope, looking much like the Cinerama films that had started coming out a few years before. Even though you know there will be a happy ending, the film is still fraught with tension, especially when they end up on the top of a very high Japanese rooftop with everybody watching them from Below. It's an easy film to get lost in, especially as the parents close in on their children, and you know there will be plenty of hugs and you're said, and hopefully not much discipline because it's a joyful situation regardless of the trouble the boys unintentionally caused.
Films like this did a lot to promote International understanding, and it's a rare dramatic film for Arthur Lubin, best known for directing some of the Abbott and Costello and Francis the Talking Mule films. Some of the highlights include the boys being taken in by a geisha, the innocent questioning of certain traditions the other nationalities don't understand (from the viewpoint of a child), and their amazement at the sights neither of them ever expected to see. Of course, the most heartwarming part of the film is the wondering if the two boys will ever get to see each other again. Clint Eastwood is the pilot on the plane in the beginning of the film, having worked with Lubin the previous year in "The First Traveling Saleslady". Perhaps a bit dated in the time frame, but certainly not in human spirit. -
gwallan5728 April 2007This movie is a great family movie and a trip through history when Japan was occupied by US Forces. No bad words, very little violence just two boys running away from the unknown in Post War Japan. Having grownup in Japan as Army brat during the 50's and 60's the movie rekindles memories of living in Japan while they were building their economy and maintaining their distinct culture and Identity. Its a warm hearted story of a foreign boy lost in totally different culture and country from what he knows yet accepts the friendship and assistance of a local boy as he is guided around Japan. He learns and sees things that would not have been possible had he not been crashed landed off the Japanese coast. I have watched and rewatched this movie with pleasure each time.
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nigel-hawkes4 September 2009Just saw this again on the BBC.
There must be something horribly wrong with modern Hollywood that we get more enjoyment from 50-year-old movies. This little gem has lovely, bright colour (not the dungeon quality we get now), has super performances, particularly from the young leads, works well as a story and also as a very interesting travelogue of post-war Japan.
No foul language and you feel good afterwards.
I'm just so pleased that with TV and DVD we can see these wonderful older movies and introduce them to our own children. I would add this to the list of must-show-to-the-children movies like the Flicka ones and the old Joel McCrea "Cattle Drive" and "Saddle Tramp". -
planktonrules25 August 2022Eastwood...rescue pilot.
Color--shows japanese nicely.
Tony is a small boy who has been staying with his aunt while his parents are in Japan. He now is about to travel there by plane....which, at first, seems like a good thing. However, the plane experiences engine trouble and is forced down in the ocean on the Japanese coast. Unfortunately, while the boy is safe, he's all alone in a raft. Fortunately, a nice family of fishermen discover the boy and rescue him...and the family's small son speaks English. Soon the boys are good friends and the family take him ashore to be reunited with his parents. Unfortunately, the Japanese boy hears that his parents are going to the police....and he misunderstands...thinking his new friend will be arrested!! This is silly...but with very young kids, it's not too farfetched. Soon the pair are on the run through the Japanese countryside.
According to IMDB, this is supposedly the first post-war Japanese movie to portray them sympathetically. I am not sure if this is the case...though it certainly does show they as decent people...which is true of nearly all people worldwide. My experiences visiting the country were quite positive as well.
So is the film any good? Well, it does help rehabilitate the Japanese image and the studio, RKO, obviously wanted the project to work, having filmed the movie there and in full color. It also is a nice look at Japan...with many lovely sites, such as Kyoto and the countryside. My only complaint, and it's not the film's fault, is that the print is a bit yellowed...which isn't surprising and not unusual.
Some might object to the film seeming a bit schmaltzy. Well, I think it does a good job of being cute without being cloying. And, I thought the children in the film were quite precious...but natural in their behaviors as well.