User Reviews

An interesting and well-photographed documentary depicting Japanese railways in the early 1960s, concentrating on the engineer and driver of a steam locomotive; a gricer's delight. It was filmed in 35 m.m. in colour so merely getting the camera onto the footplate was something of a feat even if- as I suspect- some of the scenes are re-enacted. Like every other film on railways I have seen it shows the pride in their skills and work common to all railwaymen and it moves from astonishing shots from the cabin showing the degree of awareness, skill and hard work needed to operate the train to examinations of the lives and training of the workers with brief glimpses of the passengers and station staff. Some commentators find a homo-erotic aspect in this film. It could be there but I think that it is more the obsession common to many marxists and socialists making documentaries with the effects of manual labour on the human physique that inspires Tsuchimoto's shots