Chocolate and Soldiers

1938 1h 13m JA

🤯

8.5

MASTERPIECE

★8.5TMDB · 2

WarDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Chocolate and Soldiers (チョコレートと兵隊, Chokorēto to Heitai) is a 1938 Japanese war film directed by Sato Takeshi and one of the most effective Japanese propaganda films of the late 1930s. The American director Frank Capra said of Chocolate and Soldiers "We can't beat this kind of thing. We make a film like that maybe once in a decade. We haven't got the actors. It shows the common Japanese soldier as an individual and as a family man, presenting even enemy Chinese soldiers as brave individuals. It is considered to be a "humanist" film, paying close attention to the human feelings of both the soldier and his family. Cinema theorist Kate Taylor-Jones suggests that Chocolate and Soldiers provided "a vision of the noble, obedient and honourable Japanese army fighting to defend the emperor and Japan.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Kamatari Fujiwara
Kiyoshi Hosoi
Yuko Ichinose
Masaru Kodaka
Shiro Konishi
Shiro Mizutani
Hideko Takamine
Shigeko

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Takeshi Sato
Writers: Masaru Kobayashi, Noriko Suzuki
Languages: Japanese
Countries: Japan

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 73-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

ERA

Did you know

88 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

RUNTIME

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Noboru Itō. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Kamatari Fujiwara and Kiyoshi Hosoi and Yuko Ichinose carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0263203 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

Only 2 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Takeshi Sato directs. Noboru Itō scores. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Japan. Dialogue in Japanese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 73-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
288 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
4Original score by Noboru Itō. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Kamatari Fujiwara and Kiyoshi Hosoi and Yuko Ichinose carry the top of the cast.
6IMDB entry: tt0263203 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
7Only 2 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.