Line #11 Film/TokyoOlympiad

Context Film / TokyoOlympiad

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1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/97f10b06_07b6_44ab_b411_7296446d9334.jpeg]]
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3	''Tokyo Olympiad'' is a 1965 documentary film directed by Creator/KonIchikawa with a soundtrack composed by Music/ToshiroMayuzumi.
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5	It is a documentary of the 1964 UsefulNotes/OlympicGames in UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo}}, UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}. The games were widely seen as Japan's coming-out party on the world stage, 19 years after the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Kon Ichikawa, an accomplished director of fiction movies, was hired to make a documentary, after Creator/AkiraKurosawa had been hired and then fired. Japanese authorities apparently regretted the decision to hire a more "artistic" director like Ichikawa than a documentarian, as Ichikawa's film is less concerned with the wins and losses than with the beauty of the scenery and the lives of athletes. It was eventually cut in half and re-released in Japan.
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7	Compare Creator/LeniRiefenstahl's ''Film/{{Olympia}}'', pretty much the only other Olympics documentary to be held in as high regard as this film.
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10	!!Tropes:
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12	* BreakingTheFourthWall: Smokin' Joe Frazier, who won heavyweight boxing gold in Tokyo, is walking down a tunnel when he's startled to see that a camera is following him. After a DoubleTake he waves to the camera and then goes on his way.
13	* CallBack: The film is introduced by a tight closeup of the sun. After the intermission, the second part of the film starts exactly the same way.
14	* CueTheSun: A rising sun, symbolic of Japan, introduces the Olympic torch sequence.
15	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Most of the film is shot in lush Technicolor, but there are a couple of exceptions.
16	** The hammer throw is in black-and-white. This might be to match the weather, as the hammer throw took place in a driving rainstorm.
17	** The boxing competition is also in black-and-white.
18	** The modern pentathlon is shown not only in black-and-white, but as a series of still photographs.
19	* DisturbedDoves: The opening ceremony features a flock of pigeons let loose Olympic-style. This is amusingly followed by shots of athletes cringing and ducking as pigeons zoom over their heads.
20	* {{Documentary}}: Up there with ''Olympia'' in the elite level of sports documentaries.
21	* IronicJuxtaposition: There's certainly humor in the cut between a glorious sun and a wrecking ball smashing buildings.
22	* MatchCut: The opening closeup of the sun yields to a shot of a wrecking ball, which is knocking down buildings to make way for Olympic construction.
23	* {{Narrator}}: A narrator reads a script written by Ichikawa's wife and creative partner, Natto Wada.

Context Film / TokyoOlympiad