Director: Shohei Imamura
Script: Shohei Imamura
Cinematographer: Takashi Kawamata
Art Director: Hisao Inagaki
Music: Toru Takemitsu
Cast: Etsuko Ichihara, Yoshiko Tanaka, Shoichi Ozawa, Tomi Ume, Norihei Miki
Production: Imamura Productions, Hayashibara Group, Tokoku Hinsha Film Co.
Distribution:
Films Sans Frontières
70, bd de Sébastopol
75003 Paris
France
Tel.: 0033 1.42.77.21.84
Fax: 0033 1.42.77.42.66
Mail: [email protected]
www.films-sans-frontières.fr
Year: 1989
35 mm, B & W, 123 min,
OV Japanese with French Subtitles
At 8.45 AM on 6th August 1945, a blinding flash of lightning sets Hiroshima and its surroundings ablaze and a devastating blast destroys the city in a few minutes. The first atomic bomb in history has exploded on the Japanese archipelago. Yasuko Takamaru is on a boat, on her way to her uncle Shigematsu Shizuma. Like the other passengers, she gets a “black rain” which is not yet identified as being radioactive. Five years later in May 1950, Yasuko lives with her aunt and uncle in Fukuyama, in the prefecture of Hiroshima. Those who survived the nuclear explosion have a radioactive disease and are rejected by the non irradiated people. It is hard for Yasuko to get married as her suitors believe she is sterile after her irradiation.
This is not the first Japanese film about the drama of Hiroshima. In this black and white film, Imamura is mostly concerned by the fate of this family of survivors.