Midnight Eagle

Midnight Eagle
Directed by	Izuru Narushima
Written by	Screenplay: Yasuo Hasegawa Kenzaburo Iida Novel: Tetsuo Takashima
Starring	Tatsuya Fuji Yoshihiko Hakamada Ken Ishiguro Nao Ōmori Takao Osawa Yuko Takeuchi Hiroshi Tamaki A-Saku Yoshida
Music by	Takeshi Kobayashi
Cinematography	Hideo Yamamoto
Editing by	William M. Anderson
Distributed by	Shochiku Company Shochiku Eizo Company Universal Pictures Strand Releasing
Running time	92 mins
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Midnight Eagle (ミッドナイト・イーグル, Middonaito Iiguru^?) is a 2007 action film directed by Izuru Narushima and written by Yasuo Hasegawa and Kenzaburo Iida, based on the novel by Tetsuo Takashima. Midnight Eagle is the third film directed by Izuru Narushima.^[1]

The film opened in the United States on October 2, 2007 in Los Angeles. It was also shown October 20, 2007 at the Tokyo International Film Festival.^[2] The film opened in limited release in the United States in New York City on November 23, 2007, and opened in Los Angeles on December 7, 2007.^[3]

Production

Executive producers were Keiji Kameyama, Kazutaka Akimoto, Yasuhide Uno, Riki Takano, and Kanjiro Sakura. Producers were Michihiko Umezawa, Masakazu Yoda, Teruo Noguchi, Tomiyasu Moriya, and Kei Fujiki.^[4] The film was shot with the full cooperation of the Japan Ground Self Defense Force, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, and Ministry of Defense.^[5] Mountaineer Hirofumi Konishi was the special advisor for the scenes set in the Northern Alps.^[5] Before shooting started, the crew of the film was given training in snow-covered mountains.^[5] Midnight Eagle is the first mountain film set in Japan since The Precipice in 1958.^[5]

Plot

A top secret American forces strategic bomber known as "Midnight Eagle" suddenly vanishes in the Japanese Hida Mountains.

Cast

• Takao Osawa as Yuji Nishizaki
• Yuko Takeuchi as Keiko Arisawa
• Hiroshi Tamaki as Shinichiro Ochiai
• A-Saku Yoshida as Major Akihiko Saeki
• Yoshihiko Hakamada as Toshimitsu Fuyuki
• Nao Ōmori as Major Kensuke Saito
• Ken Ishiguro as Tadao Miyata
• Tatsuya Fuji as Prime Minister Watarase

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews by Western critics. As of November 24, 2007 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 20% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 5 reviews.^[3] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 48 out of 100, based on 6 reviews.^[6]

References

1. ^ Midnight Eagle. Retrieved 2007-11-24 Archived November 12, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
2. ^ "Middonaito Îguru (2007) - Release dates". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0997167/releaseinfo. Retrieved 2007-11-24. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Midnight Eagle - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/middonaito_iguru/. Retrieved 2007-11-24. 
4. ^ http://www.midnighteagle.jp/english/index.html Retrieved 2007-11-24
5. ^ ^{a b c d} http://www.midnighteagle.jp/english/production.html Retrieved 2007-11-24
6. ^ "Midnight Eagle (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/midnighteagle. Retrieved 2007-11-24. 

External links

• Official site (Japanese)
• Official site (English)
• Official trailer
• Midnight Eagle at the Internet Movie Database
• Midnight Eagle at Rotten Tomatoes
• Midnight Eagle at Metacritic
• Midnight Eagle at AllRovi
• Universal Pictures (Japan)
• Shochiku Company (Japan)