Black Rain (Japanese film)

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Black Rain
Directed by	Shohei Imamura
Produced by	Hisa Iino
Written by	Ibuse Masuji (story) Toshiro Ishido
Starring	Yoshiko Tanaka Kazuo Kitamura
Music by	Toru Takemitsu
Cinematography	Takashi Kawamata
Editing by	Hajime Okayasu
Distributed by	Hayashibara Group Imamura Productions Tohokushinsha Film Co
Release date(s)	1989
Running time	123 min
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
IMDb profile

For the Ridley Scott film of the same name, see Black Rain (film).

Black Rain (黒い雨, Kuroi ame^?) is a 1989 Japanese film by director Shohei Imamura and based on the novel of the same name by Ibuse Masuji. The events are centered on the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Contents 1 Awards 2 Cast 3 Plot Summary 4 External links

[edit] Awards

• Wins:
  • Japanese Academy Awards 1990: Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Film, Best Lighting, Best Music Score, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress
  • Blue Ribbon Award 1990: Best Actress
  • Cannes Film Festival 1989: Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention, Technical Grand Prize
  • Flanders International Film Festival Ghent 1989: Georges Delerue Prize, Golden Spur
  • Hochi Film Awards 1989: Best Actress
  • Kinema Junpo Award 1990: Best Actress, Best Director, Best Film
  • Mainichi Film Concours 1990: Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Film
  • Sant Jordi Awards 1991: Best Foreign Film

• Nomination:
  • Japanese Academy Awards 1990: Best Art Direction, Best Sound
  • Cannes Film Festival 1989: Palme d'Or
  • Independent Spirit Awards 1991: Best Foreign Film

[edit] Cast

Yoshiko Tanaka .... Yasuko
Kazuo Kitamura .... Shigematsu Shizuma
Etsuko Ichihara .... Shigeko Shizuma
Shoichi Ozawa .... Shokichi
Norihei Miki .... Kotaro
Keisuke Ishida .... Yuichi
Hisako Hara .... Kin
Masato Yamada .... Tatsu

[edit] Plot Summary

The main character, Yasuko, is a young woman of 20 when the bomb hits Hiroshima. She is contaminated by the Black Rain that falls after the bomb and is therefore refused for marriage several times because of health reasons, which causes her aunt and uncle who are her guardians to worry about her. The movie has two settings- the past, 1945 when the bomb was dropped, which is seen mostly through diary entries; and the present, 1950. Shizuma Shigematsu and his wife Shizuma Shigeko are the guardians and relatives of Yasuko in charge of taking care of her and making sure that she is happily married. However, one of the main themes of the movie which is illustrated many times over is the Buddhist belief that life is extremely full of suffering and all things are transient and the time of death is uncertain. Yasuko is not sick until she reaches 25 and is turned down for about the 3rd marriage proposal. Eventually, her uncle begins to see his friends dying around him from the radiation sickness that can suddenly strike anyone and may or may not result in death. This causes him to reconsider his niece's marriage situation. A poor woman from the village approaches Shizuma Shigematsu and asks for his niece to marry her son, Yuichi. Yuichi is a character that suffers from PTSD (unknown/undefined condition in that day and time) and his attacks of flashback and fear are triggered by the sound of a truck engine. Yuichi is known to run underneath the passing vehicles and try to blow up "the tanks", which was his job in the army during war time. In a moment of private conversation between Yuichi and Yasuko, Yuichi tells the story of why truck engines scare him. When he is not suffering from attacks due to his PTSD, Yuichi carves Jizo, Buddhist protectors of lost, abandoned, and aborted children and travelers.* Seeing between the lines: Imamura Shohei's Kuroi Ame (Black Rain) (english). Retrieved on 2008-02-19.

[edit] External links

• Black Rain at the Internet Movie Database
• 黒い雨 (Kuroi ame) (Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-07-19.