History is written by the winners. Much the same is truth for war films. Most films about the Second World War are told from the viewpoint of the Allied forces. Films from a German perspective are scarce and even then often made by a non German, as is the case with "Germania anno zero" (1948, Roberto Rosselini, Italy) and "Lore" (2012, Cate Shortland, Australia). Only a film as "Die Mörder sind unter uns" (1946, Wolfgang Staudte) is a film about Germany told by a German.
Talking about the Asian part of the Second World War, "Black rain" (1989, Shohei Imamura) is a film about the Japanese side of the story made by a Japanese. The film can be compared to "Germania anno zero" in the sense that it is situated in the aftermath of Word War II.
What dominates the lives of the characters in the movie is however not the ruins of the city and food shortages. The film is after all located not in Berlin but in a small village near Hiroshima. Many inhabitants of this village were near Hiroshoma when the atomic bomb fell, and they may be contaminated with radio active pollution. Fear for radio active related diseases falls as a shadow over their daily life, and this fear is confirmed from time to time by yet another death in this small village.
Related as it is with the dropping of the atomic bomb, the film is not really anti American. I would say on the contrary, because the film is critical about the way Japanese society adapted to the loss of the war and the victims of this bomb.
The main character of the film is Yasuko. She was a teenager when the bomb fell, and now she is in her mid twenties. Her aunt and uncle (who raised the girl) are very anxious to find a suitable husband (almost like in an Ozu film). Every potential husband is however afraid that Yasuko might have become infertile. To make things even worse, not only outsiders but also Yasuko herself begins to rate herself as a second class citizen because she was "there" on that direful moment.
The film is in black and white. Rogert Ebert suggests that the reason is to let the opening with the apocalyptical attack not become to dominating. I think this makes sense. The film begins with the attack in 1945, but the essence of the film is the period from 1950 onward. How to forestall that spectators are so intimidated after the opening scene that the essence of the film eludes them? After all you can't film the attact with the atomic bomb as an ordinary bombing. I think the answer of Imamura to film in black and white is a wise one.
The post apocalyptical film or doomsday film is a subgenre of the sceince fiction film. In "Black rain" we can see what te post apocalyps really looks like. Maybe less spectacular than in science fiction, but no less dramatic.
Talking about the Asian part of the Second World War, "Black rain" (1989, Shohei Imamura) is a film about the Japanese side of the story made by a Japanese. The film can be compared to "Germania anno zero" in the sense that it is situated in the aftermath of Word War II.
What dominates the lives of the characters in the movie is however not the ruins of the city and food shortages. The film is after all located not in Berlin but in a small village near Hiroshima. Many inhabitants of this village were near Hiroshoma when the atomic bomb fell, and they may be contaminated with radio active pollution. Fear for radio active related diseases falls as a shadow over their daily life, and this fear is confirmed from time to time by yet another death in this small village.
Related as it is with the dropping of the atomic bomb, the film is not really anti American. I would say on the contrary, because the film is critical about the way Japanese society adapted to the loss of the war and the victims of this bomb.
The main character of the film is Yasuko. She was a teenager when the bomb fell, and now she is in her mid twenties. Her aunt and uncle (who raised the girl) are very anxious to find a suitable husband (almost like in an Ozu film). Every potential husband is however afraid that Yasuko might have become infertile. To make things even worse, not only outsiders but also Yasuko herself begins to rate herself as a second class citizen because she was "there" on that direful moment.
The film is in black and white. Rogert Ebert suggests that the reason is to let the opening with the apocalyptical attack not become to dominating. I think this makes sense. The film begins with the attack in 1945, but the essence of the film is the period from 1950 onward. How to forestall that spectators are so intimidated after the opening scene that the essence of the film eludes them? After all you can't film the attact with the atomic bomb as an ordinary bombing. I think the answer of Imamura to film in black and white is a wise one.
The post apocalyptical film or doomsday film is a subgenre of the sceince fiction film. In "Black rain" we can see what te post apocalyps really looks like. Maybe less spectacular than in science fiction, but no less dramatic.