Storm Over Arabia
Director: Kô Nakahira
Year: 1961
Rating: 6.0
Aka - Arabu no Arashi
Aka - The Arab Storm
This is a light Japanese adventure film from 1961 that is directed by Kô
Nakahira. In particular of interest is the unusual setting for a Japanese
film at this time. Most of the film is shot on location in Egypt and the film
kindly prints each location as we get to it. Egypt looked quite wonderful
back then before all the troubles came about. The film doesn't make a lot
of sense and everyone acts like an idiot, but damn Egypt makes up for it.
In an early scene, the main character races up the Giza Pyramid. I doubt if
they would let you do that now. Later on, they do a North by Northwest scene
with a plane trying to shoot him right below the pyramids. And Cairo is a
lovely walking city as he goes by many of the main areas of interest. Anyway,
enough about Egypt - another place I never got to and probably never will.
This stars Yûjirô Ishihara as Kentaro. Ishihara was a big singing
and acting star at the time - taking the main role in Crazed Fruit and other
Nikkatsu films. He manages to squeeze in a few songs here - even two in Arabic.
There are also a few nightclub songs by Shadia, a famous Egyptian singer.
But this isn't a musical though it may sound like one. It is a comical espionage
film. Light on its feet or through the air, thanks to Pan-Am that gets an
enormous amount of product placement. The Pan-Am logo always brings back a
few fond memories for me. Pan-Am gets Kentaro first to Hong Kong
for a very brief scene, then Beirut and finally Cairo. He is basically being
kicked out of Japan after his wealthy grandfather passed away. The Board
of Director's for his grandfather's company worries that if Kentaro takes
over he will bankrupt the company. Mainly because he is an idiot, a loafer,
a gambler. They all puff away on their cigarettes as they conspire how to
get rid of him.
Initially, they try to get him to Paris - even throwing a big party with
geishas thinking he is out of their hair - but then he comes back - finally
he is told off by a worker who was fired at the company for something Kentaro
did - and he begins to realize what a waste his life is and decides to see
the world. But he remains an idiot throughout the film, never realizing that
he is in the middle of a revolution and often escaping with his life only
by luck. He speaks no foreign languages and is lost from the get-go. It begins
with his bag being switched at the airport - he now has the key to a revolution
in a pendant - as he keeps telling the man to stop leaning against him. The
man is dead with a knife in his back. Both sides of a revolution want
that pendent - for what country is never said - but one side are called the
Imperialists and the boss speaks English. The pendant is basically a MacGuffin
that keeps the plot rolling. Izumi Ashikawa plays the female who has gone
to Egypt to look for her long-lost father and keeps running into Kentaro.
The idiocy of practically everyone gets a little tiresome at times, but there
is plenty here to keep you interested.
