Lo stretto della fame

This film is long, predictable, and boring. There is no suspense, the plot is stale, and the police procedure is completely uninteresting. The acting and cinematography are good, but there are some primitive effects whose strangeness is sort of unsettling as intended, but have mostly a comic effect for modern Western viewers (the sex scene with a fingernail is perhaps the highlight of the film). As in most Japanese movies, the characters are ridiculously awkward at times, but apparently this is how Japanese behave in reality.

While the depiction of post-war Japan was interesting, it wasn't enlightening, and as with German accounts of WWII you get the feeling that what little suffering is depicted is exaggerated.

Fans of Japanese cinema might like this film, but I recommend you watch Pitfall (again) if you are short on time, because Kiga kaikyo won't be adding much to your life.

I agree with the other reviewer who noted that this is a tedious movie.

Perhaps this was something special in japan of the early sixties. That was a time before Japan had come to dominate the automobile inustry and was still mucking around with little bux boxes.

This would be a matching movie for a country in an undeveloped state.

The story is procedural and the acting poor - to western eyes. What on earth reason that group had to all be together on a ferry is laughable.

High And Low - great movie, even today Harakiri - great movie, even today

This? Not so.

Perhaps "Kiga kaikyo" (Tomu Uchida, 1963), also known as "Fugitive from the Past" or "Strait of Hunger" (the original japanese title), is the most underrated japanese film in western audience. It's incredible to find that it has only 5 votes on IMDb (including mine).

"Strait of Hunger" is a dark, twisted crime drama, yet remains subtle emotion and social criticism themes inside. The characters are complex and intriguing, and the view angle of 1950s Japanese society is wide and enlightened with an epical story telling. The black and white cinematography is astoundingly fabulous, especially the billowy ocean under the hurricane, which gives the audience indelible impression. Tomu Uchida is one of the greatest film makers (if not the greatest) living in Japan and this film is a timeless masterpiece. It is my all time #1 japanese film and I strongly recommend this to everyone.

This just ran at MoMA's extraordinary survey of films from the Japan Film Institute, and it was one of the best in the series. A real eye opener--previous commenters nailed it. Definitely makes you want to explore the director's other work. Fits in that uniquely Japanese genre of the whodunnit where the process of detection requires travel throughout the country and specifics of local cultures and habits--so the travelogue is half the fascination. Getting a young Ken Takakura plus Rentaro Mikuni in the same picture is extra added bonus. If you like later films of this type such as *Castle of Sand* or *Vengeance Is Mine*, you'll like this one.

Sachiko Hidari ("Yae") is great in this film as the young geisha who shelters "Inukai" (Rentarô Mikuni) from a storm one night. Next morning he leaves her quite a sum of money - one that enables her to change her life, pay her debts - all whilst he disappears. That storm was actually a tornado that sank a local ferry boat. During that investigation, two unknown bodies are identified - and they are soon tied in with a fire that largely destroyed a local village where a robbery had taken place. Where had the money gone? Who killed the men? Many years later, "Yae" spots a photograph in a newspaper that she thinks might be her long lost benefactor and sets out to say thanks - with tragic consequences. It is a long film this, over 3 hours, but the clever - almost internecine - fashion in which the old and new stories are married together; the police investigations and the characterisations are carefully and fully crafted leaves us with quite a complex crime thriller. Now, sadly, what makes the thriller work so well is also what ruined the ending for me. It is flawed in so many ways as to make me want to shout at the screen. It's not that the ending itself is wrong, it is that the police procedures (remembering that there was little science involved in the process) are all just to convenient - far fetched, even. Still, this is a strongly paced, beautifully photographed piece of story-telling cinema that runs parallel narratives well and cohesively.