Black Rain (1989 Japanese film)

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For the American film, see Black Rain (1989 American film).
Black Rain
Black Rain 1989.jpg
DVD cover
Directed by Shōhei Imamura
Produced by Hisashi Iino
Written by
  • Shōhei Imamura
  • Toshirō Ishido
Based on Black Rain
by Masuji Ibuse
Starring
Music by Tōru Takemitsu
Cinematography Takashi Kawamata
Edited by Hajime Okayasu
Distributed by Toei
Release dates
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  • 13 May 1989 (1989-05-13) (Japan)
[1][2]
Running time
 123 minutes[1][2]
Country Japan
Language Japanese

Black Rain (黒い雨 Kuroi ame?) is a 1989 Japanese drama film by director Shōhei Imamura, based on the novel of the same name by Masuji Ibuse. The story centers on the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and its effect on a surviving family.[2][3]

Plot

Half-orphan Yasuko, who lives with her uncle Shigematsu and his wife Shigeko in Hiroshima, is in the middle of moving family belongings to the house of an acquaintance in the vicinity, when the atomic bomb is dropped. She returns to the city by boat and gets into a black rain, a fallout resulting from the bombing. After Yasuko is re-united with her uncle and aunt, the trio heads for the factory where her uncle works to escape the spreading fires. Their route is marked by ruins, scattered corpses and severely burnt survivors.

5 years later, Yasuko lives with her uncle, aunt and her uncle's mother in Fukuyama. As she has long reached the age when a woman should get married by tradition, Shigematsu and Shigeko try to find a husband for her. Yet all prospects' families withdraw their proposal when they hear of Yasuko's presence in Hiroshima on the day of the bombing, fearing that she might become ill or be unable to give birth to healthy children. Yasuko eventually accepts her situation and decides to stay with her uncle's family, even when her father, who re-married, offers her to live in his house.

Shigematsu witnesses his friends, all hibakusha suffering from radiation sickness, die one after another, while also his, his wife's and niece's health is slowly deteriorating. Yasuko starts feeling close to Yuichi, a young man from the neighbourhood who is suffering from a war trauma. When Yuichi's mother asks for Shigematsu's approval of her son marrying Yasuko, he is indignant at first because of Yuichi's mental illness, but later agrees. Shortly after, Yasuko, already suffering from a tumor, starts losing her hair and is sent to the hospital. Shigematsu watches the departing ambulance, hoping for a rainbow to appear which would indicate that she will recover.

Cast

Reception

Black Rain met with mostly, though not unanimously positive reviews. Critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 3 1/2 of 4 stars, praising its "beautifully textured" black-and-white photography and pointing out that its purpose was not an anti-nuclear message movie but "a film about how the survivors of that terrible day internalized their experiences".[4] Geoff Andrew, writing for Time Out, stated that "despite the largely sensitive depiction of waste, suffering and despair, the often ponderous pacing and the script's solemnity tend to work against emotional involvement".[5] Film scholar Alexander Jacoby discovered an "almost Ozu-like quietism", citing Black Rain as an example of the "mellowed" Imamura in his later years.[6] Film historian Donald Richie pointed out the film's "warmth, sincerity and compassion".[7]

Awards

References

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Further reading

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External links

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