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Kuroi ame/Black Rain (1989). Cast. Yasuko……......................…Tanaka Yoshiko Shigematsu……………….…….Kitamura Kazuo Shigeko………………..…………Ichihara Etsuko. Imamura Shohei (1926 – 2006). Major Films/Nikkatsu. Stolen Desire (1958) Endless Desire (1958) Pigs and Battleships (1961)
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Cast • Yasuko……......................…Tanaka Yoshiko • Shigematsu……………….…….Kitamura Kazuo • Shigeko………………..…………Ichihara Etsuko
Major Films/Nikkatsu • Stolen Desire (1958) • Endless Desire (1958) • Pigs and Battleships (1961) • The Insect Woman (1963) • The Pornographers (1966)
Major films 1966-1979 • A Man Vanishes (ATG, 1967) • The Profound Desire of the Gods (Nikkatsu, 1968) • History of Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess (1970) • Karayuki-san (1975) • Vengenance is Mine (1979)
Major Films, 1979- • Eijanaika/Why Not (1981) • Narayama bushi-ko (1983) • Unagi (1997) • Kanzo Sensei (1998) • Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001)
A-Bomb • The Bell of Nagasaki (Oba Hideo, 1950) Based on memoir published in 1949 Catholic nuclear scientist Nagai Takashi Survivor of Nagasaki who (ironically) died of X-ray poisoning; His wife died on Aug. 9 1945 in the bombing • Children of Nagasaki (Kinoshita Keisuke, 1983) • Children of the Atom Bomb (Shindo Kaneto, 1952) Released Aug. 6 Based on essays of Hiroshima schoolchildren • I’ll Not Forget the Song of Nagasaki (Tasaka Tomotaka, 1952) Director a famous war-time filmmaker and survivor, a hibakusha • Hiroshima (Sekigawa Hideo, 1953) Reconstruct immediate devastation
A-Bomb (cont.) • A Story of Pure Love (Imai Tadashi, 1957) Woman suffering radiation sickness • Lucky Dragon #5 (Shindo, 1959) Japanese fishing boat irradiated in Pacific by US bomb test Bikini Atoll. Bikini H-bomb test: March 1954 Bikini Atoll and environs subjected to numerous tests, some bombs completely vaporized a number of islands • Lost Sex (Shindo, 1966) Young man impotent from radiation exposure at Nagasaki
Kurosawa and the Bomb • Rashomon (1951) allegory • Record of a Living Being/I Live in Fear (1955) Fear of nuclear holocaust • Dreams (1990) Nuclear holocaust from nuclear stockpiles in Japan • Rhapsody in August (1991) Old woman survivor of Nagasaki
Kuroi Ame • Genbaku bungaku - A-bomb literature Ibuse Masuji novel (1969) Yuichi - character from “Lt. Lookeast” • Film shot in a village in Hyogo prefecture Gov’t subsidized as a “representation of Japanese tradition” • Tanaka Yoshiko – teen idol; member of “The Candies” • Discrimination against survivors (hibakusha) Handicapped Minamata disease
Themes and Values • Fertility vs. irradiated infertility • Marriage vs. unsuitable • Purity/innocence vs. physical corruption • Traditional vs. Modern • Self-sacrifice and stoic endurance
Imaging young women victims “The Hiroshima Maidens” group of hibakusha brought to US in 1955