Elephant from "Zoo Story"

Elephant from "Zoo Story"

1957 · 67 min · Drama

The fifth film in the Toho Diamond series, following "The Hateful Thing." Based on the true story of "Zoo Story" by author Fukuda Saburo. During the Tokyo air raids of World War II, Zen-san, an elephant keeper at Ueno Zoo, is faced with the heartbreaking task of euthanizing Tonki, a beloved elephant, due to food shortages and wartime pressures. Unable to carry out the order, Zen-san secretly feeds Tonki, but the elephant is ultimately shot by the military police. The film poignantly captures Zen-san’s despair and the devastation of war, as he reflects on his powerlessness amid the chaos.

Directed by Kajirō Yamamoto · Written by Kajirō Yamamoto

Your Rating

Cast

Kenichi Enomoto Zen-san (Elephant Officer)
Keiju Kobayashi Head of Animal Care Division, Higashi
Momoko Kôchi Yoshiko (Student mobilization)
Kyōko Anzai Miyazawa Sensei
Yoshio Kosugi Sugiura (Gatekeeper)
Sachio Sakai Tamura (Lion Officer)
Sōji Ubukata Director of Toda Zoo
Noriko Honma Tetsu (Zen's wife)
Okayu Taka Takahashi (Leopard)
Akira Sera Ito (Small Bird)
Mitsuo Tsuda Inoue (Camel handler)
Tadao Nakamaru Narita (Sergeant)

Make it a double feature

2h 27m together

Elephant from "Zoo Story"

Who Knows a Woman's Heart

Both from Kajirō Yamamoto.

More from Kajirō YamamotoSee all →

Flirtation in Spring

Flirtation in Spring · 1949

Flirtation in Spring

Japanese adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's play "Marius", set in early XXth century Japan.

Who Knows a Woman's Heart

Who Knows a Woman's Heart · 1951

Who Knows a Woman's Heart

Ikeuchi was captain of the K - University ice hockey team. The daughter Shikotsuko of Ginza 's western restaurant "Piccolo" was also a female student at K University and was a figure player. They had a dream of being dispatched to Oslo in the Olympic Games and were struggling in each way. Mizuno who runs a sports equipment store in Ginza, showed the geisha by guiding the junior's Ikeuchi and others to the shop of Shimbashi one day.

A Husband's Chastity: If Spring Comes & Fall Once Again

A Husband's Chastity: If Spring Comes & Fall Once Again · 1937

A Husband's Chastity: If Spring Comes & Fall Once Again

Kayo and Kuniko graduated from girls' school together and are as close as sisters. Kuniko's fiancé, Minakami, feels something that attracts him deeply towards Kayo. On the other hand, Kayo prays for the happiness of her best friend and marries a very ordinary man. However, at one point, this mediocre but increasingly ferocious husband died in an accident ... A triangular love story develops depicting a woman's heart that sways between love and morals. Based on a novel by Nobuko Yoshiya, there were originally two parts to the film (If Spring Comes & Fall Once Again), both supposed to be 85 minutes, but apparently what we have now is this 103-minute amalgam of the two.

Battle Troop

Battle Troop · 1944

Three IJN flyers Mikami (Susumu Fujita), Kawakami (Masayuki Mori) and Murakami (Akitake Kono) are good friends, and they are all renowned for their torpedo techniques. Mikami is posted as a staff officer at a base on an island in the Pacific. Kawakami and Murakami later joins him as the base squardron is reinforced. The enemy task force approaches the island and all three of them attack the fleet, killing themselves in the process.

The Adventures of Sun Wu Kung

The Adventures of Sun Wu Kung · 1959

The Adventures of Sun Wu Kung

MovieAdventureFantasy

The mythical adventures of the legendary Chinese trickster Monkey, who must outwit a variety of wily demons who stand in the way of him and his fellow Buddhist travelers. Though portrayed as a literal, if rather anthropomorphized, monkey in the original legends, this film substitutes the spindly comic actor Norihei Miki, sans makeup.

Those Who Make Tomorrow

Those Who Make Tomorrow · 1946

Those Who Make Tomorrow

In postwar Japan, two sisters—a film studio script girl and a revue dancer—become swept up in the growing labor movement when workers around them strike for better conditions. As their conservative father opposes their activism, his own dismissal forces him to confront the realities of class struggle and join their fight for a fairer future. Now considered a lost film, Those Who Make Tomorrow was produced by Toho to promote unionization during Japan’s Allied Occupation.

Holiday in Tokyo

Holiday in Tokyo · 1958

Holiday in Tokyo

May Kawaguchi is a famous Japanese fashion designer. Returning to Tokyo from her home in New York, she travels incognito with a tour group, in hopes of having a quiet vacation without being noticed. But she is spotted and the press has a field-day with the returning celebrity. Her hopes of rest shattered, she agrees to put on a large-scale fashion show.

Japanese Women's Textbook

Japanese Women's Textbook · 1937

Japanese Women's Textbook

MovieDramaHistory

Kin no tamago: Golden Girl

Kin no tamago: Golden Girl · 1952

Kin no tamago: Golden Girl

Once an average and seemingly ordinary Tokyo girl, she suddenly finds herself as a TV star owing to her discovery by a casting company, which noticed photographs that her cousin had sent. When another actress falls ill she is given the role instead. Her first film is a success propelling the young actress to popularity, her own fans, money and a house. While everything looks dandy from the outside not all is well within the family however.

Stray Dog

Stray Dog · 1949

MovieCrimeDrama

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

Irresponsible Life in Edo Japan

Irresponsible Life in Edo Japan · 1964

Irresponsible Life in Edo Japan

A comedy directed by Kajiro Yamamoto, based on an original idea by Koji Toita, co-written by Yasuo Tanami, who worked on "Hibari Chiemi Izumi Sannin Yoba" and Kajiro Yamamoto, who worked on "The Story of a Genius Swindler: Tanuki no Hanamichi." Photographed by Seiichi Endo of "Things That Live at the End of the Earth."

Colonel Kato's Falcon Squadron

Colonel Kato's Falcon Squadron · 1944

Colonel Kato's Falcon Squadron

A 1944 propaganda film that depicts the fictionalised career of IJAAF pilot Tateo Kato, who led the 64th Sentai during the early months of the Pacific War. The film has scenes featuring Ki-43 fighters escorting Ki-21 bombers to attack Rangoon, where they are attacked by P-40 Warhawk and Brewster Buffalo fighters.

Muttsuri Umon's Detective Stories: The Demon Mask Mansion

Muttsuri Umon's Detective Stories: The Demon Mask Mansion · 1955

Muttsuri Umon's Detective Stories: The Demon Mask Mansion

1955 Japanese movie

The Underworld

The Underworld · 1956

MovieDramaCrime

Yakuza boss Furuya leans more and more on his protege Takao Shoji, though Shoji has become romantically involved with Furuya's mistress, Natsue. Furuya himself has fallen in love, with a nurse after his recent hospital stay. As the gang grows more jealous of the favoritism Furuya shows Shoji, they decide to reveal Shoji's relationship with Natsue. But Furuya's affection for Shoji cannot be easily destroyed, even in the gang war that erupts.

Roppongi Nights: Love Me, Love Me

Roppongi Nights: Love Me, Love Me · 1963

Roppongi Nights: Love Me, Love Me

Director Iwauchi Katsuki adapted this melodrama from Sasazawa Saho's award winning novel about two young lovers from different sides of the tracks set against the backdrop of the Roppongi district in Tokyo. Masaaki (Minegishi Toru) is the son of a prominent judge and a Law student at university. Chikage (Nakagawa Yuki) is a teenager from an underprivileged home. Both are desperately looking for an escape from their lives when they meet in Roppongi one night and fall in love. But coming from such different backgrounds, their happiness isn't assured.

Horse

Ine Onoda, the eldest daughter of a poor family of farmers, raises a colt from birth and comes to love the horse dearly. When the horse is grown, the government orders it auctioned and sold to the army. Ine struggles to prevent the sale.

More Like This

The Protector

The Protector · 2005

MovieActionCrime

A young fighter named Kham must go to Australia to retrieve his stolen elephant. With the help of a Thai-born Australian detective, Kham must take on all comers, including a gang led by an evil woman and her two deadly bodyguards.

Cabiria

Cabiria · 1914

MovieDramaHistory

Young Cabiria is kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave in Carthage. Just as she's to be sacrificed to Moloch, Cabiria is rescued by Fulvius Axilla, a good-hearted Roman spy, and his powerful slave, Maciste. The trio are broken up as Cabiria is entrusted to a woman of noble birth. With Cabiria's fate unknown, Maciste punished for his heroism, and Fulvius sent away to fight for Rome, is there any hope of our heroes reuniting?

Alexander

Alexander · 2004

MovieWarHistory

Alexander, the King of Macedonia, leads his legions against the giant Persian Empire. After defeating the Persians, he leads his army across the then known world, venturing farther than any westerner had ever gone, all the way to India.

Santa Sangre

Santa Sangre · 1989

MovieHorrorDrama

A former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his armless, cult leader mother, and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name.

Ashes and Snow

Ashes and Snow · 2005

MovieDocumentaryDrama

Ashes and Snow, a film by Gregory Colbert, uses both still and movie cameras to explore extraordinary interactions between humans and animals. The 60-minute feature is a poetic narrative rather than a documentary. It aims to lift the natural and artificial barriers between humans and other species, dissolving the distance that exists between them.

White Hunter, Black Heart

White Hunter, Black Heart · 1990

White Hunter, Black Heart

MovieAdventureDrama

Renowned filmmaker John Wilson travels to Africa to direct a new movie, but constantly leaves to hunt elephants and other game, to the dismay of his cast and crew. He eventually becomes obsessed with hunting down and killing one specific elephant.

Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants · 2011

Water for Elephants

MovieDramaRomance

In this captivating Depression-era melodrama, impetuous veterinary student Jacob Jankowski joins a celebrated circus as an animal caretaker but faces a wrenching dilemma when he's transfixed by angelic married performer Marlena.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter