User reviews

The Japanese women's volleyball team that won the Gold Medal at the 1964 Olympics is the subject of this documentary. Perhaps it is not as interesting a priori as the subject of his previous documentary, "L'empire de la perfection" (Julien Faraut, 2018), but the numerous footage (including a manga series based on the team) allows the director to produce an agile documentary in montage and rhythm. The last game, however, is not as electrifying as it is wanted to make us see.

The story of the incredible Japanese women's volleyball team is presented here for the first time, in quite an entertaining format. Luckily, the director had some great footage at hand, some of it even in impeccable quality.

The secret behind the success of the "witches," as they got nicknamed in Europe, is soon lifted, they trained so hard, it often becomes painful to watch. Their trainer was nicknamed, "the demon", quite appropriate! The young ladies did not give in though, and became national heroes, even famous today, 50 years after their great success. A lot of anime had been produced on the subject and the director edited it into the life footage and created some astonishing effects.

Seeing the remaining old ladies now was another highlight, hearing them talk on how hard it was, but also, how motivated they have been, to remain on the team.

I knew the basic story outline of this documentary The Witches of the Orient but was very pleasantly surprised that it exceeded my expectations. The director/writer was able to do so due to some very creative and unique handling of this material along with the additional anime elements and some highly effective film manipulation and wonderfully paired music/sound effects. The modern day footage of the players coming together to remember those bygone days along with some actual footage of them training and competing all combined to make for a warm, unique, and interesting film experience well worth checking out.

Spoiler alert, it turns out there was no witchcraft or sorcery involved at all - just incredibly hard work and training.

The story of the Japanese women's volleyball team that rattled off 258 consecutive wins, including winning gold at the 1964 summer Olympics in Tokyo, is inspiring, and it was a treat to see many of the surviving members still going strong when they met up in their 70's (and perhaps early 80's) for the making of this film. The rigorous regimen coach Daimatsu put them through, starting practice after getting off work from their factory jobs at 5pm and then going to midnight or often later, 1am or 2am, as well as footage of him rapidly firing balls at sprawling team members trying to dig them off the ground at a rate no human could possibly react to, certainly gave a pretty good understanding for how they had been toughened mentally and physically.

It was inspiring to see them endure that, win gold in their home country, comment on how it had made them much stronger in real life afterwords, and then still appear quite youthful in older age. While some had passed away, like captain Kasai Masae (who at 31 in 1964 was older than the rest), we see elderly Katsumi Matsumura biking to the gym in the rain and then pumping iron.

Unfortunately, however, director Julien Faraut just couldn't get out of his own wall in making this documentary. There are several segments inserted into the story that had no real business being here, including the opening animation, footage of devastated Tokyo shortly after the end of the war, and a long sequence of random manufacturing work showing Japan's rebuilding. His decision to mix in anime of volleyball action with the 1962 world championship match in Moscow, where the team earned its nickname by upsetting the powerful Soviet team, was unconscionable. I mean ffs you've literally got footage of the match and even during a point, like when a player is about to spike the ball, you cut away to an anime of a stylized power spike. It was very irritating.

The footage two years later at the Olympics is handled slightly better, but even here we get cut aways to an anime of fans cheering, and after many points, bizarre cut aways to a clock showing the time. The video was also tiled horizontally to fill out the wider aspect ratio, meaning portions of it were repeated on the edges, which was distracting. Meanwhile, not even effort to describe other matches on their path to getting to that game, before or during the Olympics. It really kind of felt like this was not really a sports fan trying to tell a sports story, and doing a mediocre job. It's a compelling bit of history I'd never heard of though, so I'm glad he made this film.

In preparation for this inspiring documentary, the French film crew and their translator took a year to establish rapport with the former volleyball players.

Full of touching moments from the interviewees, now in their 80s, we gained insight in their lasting friendship and dedication (they all worked morning shifts in a factory, then practised volleyball in the afternoon until late at night) from jaw-dropping training footage. Knowing the result of the 1964 Olympics volleyball final, the tournament footage is still exhilarating to watch, even today.

As the former teammates gathered at the lunch table, sharing their fond memories of each other's antics and nicknames, some players were sorely missing from the occasion (due to illness or have passed in recent years). I'm glad the legendary players have agreed to participate in this sports documentary, a timeless story to tell and to watch.