"Tokyo Olympiad," a documentary about the 1964 Summer Olympic Games, was partly fictitious — a gold medalist "acted" to re-create an iconic scene at the request of the film's legendary director, Kon Ichikawa.
"Along the marathon course, there was no place to film a runner with the Olympic cauldron flame" with National Stadium visible in the distance, recalled Masuo Yamaguchi, 82, who filmed the race.
"Kon wanted that scene by any means, found a place for it near the stadium and asked Abebe (Bikila) to run there" the day after the actual race, Yamaguchi said.