| Castle of Sand | |
|---|---|
Original Japanese poster art | |
| Directed by | Yoshitarō Nomura |
| Written by | Yoshitarō Nomura Shinobu Hashimoto Yōji Yamada |
| Based on | |
| Produced by | Shinobu Hashimoto Yoshihara Mishima Masayuki Sato |
| Starring | Tetsuro Tamba Go Kato Kensaku Morita Yoko Shimada Karin Yamaguchi Shin Saburi Ken Ogata Kiyoshi Atsumi |
| Cinematography | Takashi Kawamata |
| Edited by | Kazuo Ôta |
| Music by | Yasushi Akutagawa |
| Distributed by | Shochiku |
Release date |
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Running time | 143 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Castle of Sand (Japanese: 砂の器, Hepburn: Suna no Utsuwa), alternatively The Castle of Sand, is a 1974 Japanese police procedural neo-noir film directed by Yoshitarō Nomura, based on the novel Suna no Utsuwa by Seicho Matsumoto.
The film tells the tale of two detectives, Imanishi (Tetsuro Tamba) and Yoshimura (Kensaku Morita), tasked with tracking down the murderer of an old man, found bludgeoned to death in a rail yard. When the identity of the old man can't be determined, the investigation focuses on the only other clue: a scrap of conversation overheard at a bar between the old man and a younger one. A witness recalls the cryptic phrases "Kameda did this" and "Kameda doesn't change."
This sets off a wide-ranging investigation that covers swaths of geography, changing social mores, and time. The investigation ends with a conclusion which the source describes as emotional and heartbreaking, and shattering because the reason for the crime no longer exists in the world.