AllMovie

Set in 1901, this movie depicts the fate of two military training companies sent on war exercises to Mount Hakkoda in the northernmost part of the main island of Japan. They were preparing for maneuvers in the Russo-Japanese War, on the orders of Maj. General Tomoda, in terrain which they believed would be similar to those they would encounter during the war itself. They were asked to rendezvous somewhere on the mountain. The smaller group was headed by a man who scouted the local area and asked local people how best to survive the conditions they would encounter. This group also asked for local guides. They survived quite handily, but could not complete their mission because the larger group, which trusted their modern procedures and military training and spurned the locals' offers of guidance, was lost -- frozen, on the mountain.