Overview
This Life cover shot had a complicated history. Brake originally took a similar photograph with his 35mm camera, which Life thought would make a good fold-out cover. But this required a higher quality image taken on a large-format camera. To stage the reshoot, Brake had to persuade the Japanese film studio where he took the original photograph to rebuild the now-dismantled set and reassemble the crew, by this time dispersed throughout Japan. A large party was thrown to reunite everyone for what was described as a wonderful opportunity to showcase Japan’s film industry to the world.
Life, 20 December 1963