Movie: A Boy's Summer in 1945

Top 10 Billed Cast

Tasuku Emoto
柄本佑

Yoshio Harada
原田芳雄

Tokie Hidari
左時枝

Wakaba Irie
入江若葉

Eri Ishida
石田えり

Teruyuki Kagawa
香川照之

Masahiro Komoto
甲本雅裕

Riho Makise
牧瀬里穂

Junko Miyashita
宮下順子

Hiroko Nakajima
中島ひろ子

  • HomePage

  • Overview

    Commencing well-respected Nippon director Kazuo Kuroki's sixth decade behind the camera, "A Boy's Summer in 1945" (literally "A Beautiful Summer in Kirishima") is a lyric, novelistic drama set in the countryside in the last days before Japan's surrender ending WWII. Striking a welcome retro note in its languid pacing and delicate handling of seriocomic ensemble threads, handsome production is a natural for fests. It might also prove a cornerstone for retrospectives or ancillary releases of works by a helmer ("Preparation of the Festival," "Ronin-gai") who's long been appreciated at home but has won just limited attention abroad.

  • Release Date

    2002-12-14

  • Average

    5.3

  • Rating:

    2.6 starts
  • Tagline

  • Genres

  • Languages:

    日本語
  • Keywords

Recommendations Movies

The Book Thief
75%

The Book Thief(en)

2013-11-08

While subjected to the horrors of WWII Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. Under the stairs in her home, a Jewish refugee is being sheltered by her adoptive parents.

Grave of the Fireflies
79%

Grave of the Fireflies(ja)

2005-11-01

Hisako loses her home in Tokyo to Allied bombing. With her husband fighting somewhere in Asia, she and her two children evacuate to a suburb of Kobe, where they share a house with Hisako's cousin, Kyoko. Kobe is bombed and Kyoko is killed. Hisako is forced to take care of Kyoko's two children in addition to her own, but there is not enough food for everyone.

Hope and Glory
69%

Hope and Glory(en)

1987-09-03

A middle-aged man recalls his childhood growing up in and around London during World War II.

Johnny Mad Dog
61%

Johnny Mad Dog(en)

2008-05-20

A cast of unknown performers are used in this drama about child soldiers fighting a war in an unnamed African country.

Return
64%

Return(en)

2011-02-10

Back from a tour of duty, Kelli struggles to find her place in her family and the rust-belt town she no longer recognizes.

Private Peaceful
66%

Private Peaceful(en)

2012-10-12

Set in the fields of Devon and the WW1 battlefields of Flanders, two brothers fall for the same girl while contending with the pressures of their feudal family life, the war, and the price of courage and cowardice.

Twenty-Four Eyes
77%

Twenty-Four Eyes(ja)

1954-09-15

From 1928 to 1946, the lives of 12 young people and their school teacher in a poor Japanese village are profoundly affected by historical events and personal circumstances.

The Railway Children Return
65%

The Railway Children Return(en)

2022-07-15

Follow a group of children who are evacuated to a Yorkshire village during the Second World War, where they encounter a young soldier who, like them, is far away from home.

Radio Days
70%

Radio Days(en)

1987-01-30

The Narrator tells us how the radio influenced his childhood in the days before TV. In the New York City of the late 1930s to the New Year's Eve 1944, this coming-of-age tale mixes the narrator's experiences with contemporary anecdotes and urban legends of the radio stars.

Where Hands Touch
79%

Where Hands Touch(en)

2018-09-14

Germany, 1944. Leyna, the 15-year old daughter of a white German mother and a black African father, meets Lutz, a compassionate member of the Hitler Youth whose father is a prominent Nazi soldier, and they form an unlikely connection in this quickly changing world.

Little Boy
72%

Little Boy(en)

2015-04-23

An eight-year-old boy is willing to do whatever it takes to end World War II so he can bring his father home. The story reveals the indescribable love a father has for his little boy and the love a son has for his father.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria
69%

The Secret of Santa Vittoria(en)

1970-01-02

During World War II, Italian villagers hide their wine from the German army.

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
73%

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds(en)

1972-12-20

Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.

The Island on Bird Street
71%

The Island on Bird Street(en)

1997-04-11

Alex is an 11-year old boy who, during WWII, hides in the Jewish ghetto from Nazis after all his relatives have been sent to the concentration camp. The movie portrays the ghetto through his eyes.

Goodnight, Mister Tom
68%

Goodnight, Mister Tom(en)

1998-10-25

A shy and quiet World War II evacuee is housed by a disgruntled old man, and they soon develop a close bond.

Mother Night
66%

Mother Night(en)

1996-11-01

An American spy behind the lines during WWII serves as a Nazi propagandist, a role he cannot escape in his future life as he can never reveal his real role in the war.

Summerland
75%

Summerland(en)

2020-07-24

A woman during the Second World War opens her heart to an evacuee after initially resolving to be rid of him.

The Only Son
74%

The Only Son(ja)

1936-09-15

A silk factory worker is persuaded to support her son's education up to a college level despite their poverty. Many years later, she travels to Tokyo to visit her son.

The Road Dance
67%

The Road Dance(en)

2022-05-20

A young girl lives in the Outer Hebrides in a small village in the years just before WWI. Isolated and hard by the shore, her life takes a dramatic change when a terrible tragedy befalls her.

House of Bamboo
62%

House of Bamboo(en)

1955-07-01

Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.

Similar Movies

Volunteer
55%

Volunteer(ko)

1941-02-08

A young man is anguished that Koreans cannot volunteer to join to Japanese Imperial Army.

Sokolovo
39%

Sokolovo(cs)

1975-05-09

The plot begins in the Soviet Union showing first efforts to establish the Czechoslovak legion in 1942. The film also shows the assassination of Heydrich and the subsequent annihilation of Lidice. The main topis of the film is battles with German troops for Sokolovo.

The Girl with the Instagram
70%

The Girl with the Instagram(he)

2019-05-01

Nagyvárad, Hungary, 1944. From February to June, Eva Heyman, a 13-year-old Jewish girl, wrote a diary describing the harsh conditions of her life under Nazi occupation. How would she have told her story if she had used Instagram?

Dead to Rights
80%

Dead to Rights(zh)

2025-07-19

During the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, a postman poses as a photo developer, helping Japanese forces while secretly sheltering Chinese refugees. He later risks his life evacuating them and revealing evidence of the atrocities.

Gandhi
76%

Gandhi(en)

1982-12-01

In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.

Closely Watched Trains
72%

Closely Watched Trains(cs)

1966-11-18

At a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, a bumbling dispatcher’s apprentice longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him, this young man embarks on a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery, encountering a universe of frustration, eroticism, and adventure within his sleepy backwater depot.

Judgment at Nuremberg
80%

Judgment at Nuremberg(en)

1961-12-18

In 1947, four German judges who served on the bench during the Nazi regime face a military tribunal to answer charges of crimes against humanity. Chief Justice Haywood hears evidence and testimony not only from lead defendant Ernst Janning and his defense attorney Hans Rolfe, but also from the widow of a Nazi general, an idealistic U.S. Army captain and reluctant witness Irene Wallner.

Antonia's Line
68%

Antonia's Line(nl)

1995-09-21

After World War II, Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, go back to their Dutch hometown, where Antonia's late mother has bestowed a small farm upon her. There, Antonia settles down and joins a tightly-knit but unusual community. Those around her include quirky friend Crooked Finger, would-be suitor Bas and, eventually for Antonia, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter who help create a strong family of empowered women.

The Best Years of Our Lives
78%

The Best Years of Our Lives(en)

1946-12-25

It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.

Seven Years in Tibet
72%

Seven Years in Tibet(en)

1997-09-12

Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer journeys to the Himalayas without his family to head an expedition in 1939. But when World War II breaks out, the arrogant Harrer falls into Allied forces' hands as a prisoner of war. He escapes with a fellow detainee and makes his way to Lhasa, Tibet, where he meets the 14-year-old Dalai Lama, whose friendship ultimately transforms his outlook on life.

The Bridge on the River Kwai
78%

The Bridge on the River Kwai(en)

1957-10-11

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

Uloupené dětství
0%

Uloupené dětství(cs)

1988-03-15

The true story of a little boy who was taken from his grandmother's care during the war by a court decision at the request of his father and his upbringing was entrusted to the German authorities. Upbringing means Germanization. The methods used here did not even remotely resemble their noble name. Inhuman treatment and psychological and physical suffering also affected Mirko.

Panfilov's 28 Men
68%

Panfilov's 28 Men(ru)

2016-11-24

USSR, November, 1941. Based on the account by Vasiliy Koroteev this is the story of Panifilov's Twenty-Eight, a group of twenty-eight Red Army soldiers commanded by General Ivan Panfilov, that stopped the advance on Moscow of a column of fifty-four Nazi tanks of the 11th Panzer Division for several days. Though lightly armed they fight tirelessly and defiantly, with uncommon bravery and unwavering dedication, to protect Moscow and their Motherland.

The Great Love
66%

The Great Love(de)

1942-06-12

The attractive Oberleutnant Paul Wendlandt is stationed in North Africa as a fighter pilot. While in Berlin to deliver a report he is given a day's leave, and on the stage of the cabaret theatre "Skala" sees the popular Danish singer Hanna Holberg. For Paul it is love at first sight. When Hanna visits friends after the end of the performance, he follows her, and speaks to her in the U-Bahn. After the party in her friends' flat, he accompanies her home and chance throws them further together when an air raid warning forces them to take cover in the air raid shelter. Hanna reciprocates Paul's feelings, but after a night spent together Paul has to return immediately to the front. There now follows a whole series of misunderstandings, and one missed opportunity after another. While Hanna waits in vain for some sign of life from Paul, he is flying on missions in North Africa. When he tries to visit her in her Berlin flat, she is giving a Christmas concert in Paris.

Saving Private Ryan
82%

Saving Private Ryan(en)

1998-07-24

As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.

The Chorus
77%

The Chorus(fr)

2004-03-17

In 1940s France, a new teacher at a school for disruptive boys gives hope and inspiration.

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
52%

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song(en)

1971-03-31

After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black male prostitute goes on the run from "the man" with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.

A Bridge Too Far
72%

A Bridge Too Far(en)

1977-06-15

The story of Operation Market Garden—a failed attempt by the allies in the latter stages of WWII to end the war quickly by securing three bridges in Holland allowing access over the Rhine into Germany. A combination of poor allied intelligence and the presence of two crack German panzer divisions meant that the final part of this operation (the bridge in Arnhem over the Rhine) was doomed to failure.

The Great Escape
79%

The Great Escape(en)

1963-07-03

The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

The Hessen Affair
50%

The Hessen Affair(en)

2009-01-14

In 1945 a group of victorious American officers discover a stash of German jewels and try to fence them in New York.