Chocolate and Soldiers

Chocolate and Soldiers

  • Overview
  • Cast
  • Crew

Status

Released

Release Date

Nov 30, 1938

Runtime

1h 13m

Genres

War, Drama

Original Title

チョコレートと兵隊

Production Companies

Toho Eiga Co., Ltd.

Director

Takeshi Sato

Description

Chocolate and Soldiers (チョコレートと兵隊, Chokorēto to Heitai) is a 1938 Japanese war film directed by Sato Takeshi and one of the most effective Japanese propaganda films of the late 1930s. The American director Frank Capra said of Chocolate and Soldiers "We can't beat this kind of thing. We make a film like that maybe once in a decade. We haven't got the actors. It shows the common Japanese soldier as an individual and as a family man, presenting even enemy Chinese soldiers as brave individuals. It is considered to be a "humanist" film, paying close attention to the human feelings of both the soldier and his family. Cinema theorist Kate Taylor-Jones suggests that Chocolate and Soldiers provided "a vision of the noble, obedient and honourable Japanese army fighting to defend the emperor and Japan.