Not to be confused with the American cop thriller with the same name, Shōhei Imamura’s Black Rain is about the atomic bomb, but it’s not really concerned about nuclear warfare. Sure, the film opens with gruesome shots of the day the bomb dropped, not sparing the viewers from the gore and the titular nuclear fallout, that in black and white looks the same. And yes, much of the conflict occurs because of the lingering effects of the radiation. However, Imamura is much more concerned with the way Japanese society had tried to deal with it through going back to tradition– through going through the motions of matchmaking and propriety and social status and through excluding those who suffered directly from the bomb. Black Rain has a singular perspective, one that stands out due to the country’s denial of war crimes.
Shigematsu Shizuma, who lives with his family in a village near Fukuyama, was in Hiroshima with his wife and niece just after the devastating atomic bombing, a tragedy that cruelly took the lives of thousands of people and forever marked the harsh existence of the survivors.
When the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima, Yasuko managed to escape healthy and unscathed. However, five years after she and her family moved to Fukuyama, she’s unable to marry due to concerns over her health and fertility.
Colored filmmaking was already standard in the 1980s, but Imamura decided to film entirely in black and white, possibly due to how horrific the bombing would be in color, but also possibly due to the way society is attached to the past.
If you’ve been wanting the Japanese perspective to Oppenheimer (2023), this is one of many films to watch.
Cannes
1 win, 1 nomination
Spirit Awards
1 nomination
