Rhapsody in August (1991)

Good Intentions But Mediocre Effort

A late, mediocre work by a great director about an important subject. Four kids visit their grandmother outside Nagasaki and learn about the atomic bombing she survived forty-five years earlier. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts were terrible tragedies and Kurosawa means well in trying to openly discuss Japanese feelings and understandings nearly a half century later. Kurosawa's heart is in the right place but the subject is too important for the slack treatment it receives.

Kurosawa wrote the script as well as directed. The direction is slack & the script is tone deaf. The children do not talk the way children talk. They talk the way an 80-year-old thinks they talk. The acting by the kids is awful. They don't seem to understand what it means to be in a movie. Richard Gere is competent as an kindhearted Asian American, a role he is poorly cast in.

The movie is touching when the characters visit Nagasaki memorials such as a burnt and twisted jungle gym at an elementary school. To me, the most touching is watching children play on the same playground during a memorial ceremony. Otherwise, there seems to be a lot of hemming and hawing as Kurosawa bends over backward to avoid bluntly blaming America. The elderly lady who survived the blast blames war, in general. Richard Gere's Asian-American character is sorry his uncle died in the blast and respectfully attends memorials but deftly avoids apologizing for America. At no point does Kurosawa suggest Japan might bear the burden.

As much as I love Kurosawa's work and understand the importance of the subject, I can't recommend this movie. July 2, 2008

Perspectives

I was rather surprized by "Rhapsody in August". I am a big fan of Kurosawa's movies and this one seemed to be missing his usual stamp of excellence. Unlike his other movies that I have seen, this seemed to be a theater play brought to the screen. The color and settings were nice but nothing of the level and scope of what seemed to be standard for this director. As a result, my initial impression was disappointment. However, Kurosawa was also the writer as well as the director and the impact of the script brought the movie up a notch after I had time to reflect on it.

This is a tale of a tragedy of major proportions; The second atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki in WWII. The tragic beauty of the tale is in how it shows the different perspectives from different generations and different countries. The essential points of view are that of an elderly woman who was nearby when the bomb was dropped (and whose husband was incinerated in the blast), her children who knew the after-effects more than the event itself, and her children who only knew of the event in history books. There is also the inferred perspective of her elder brother who emmigrated to Hawaii in the 1920's (and his son who didn't seem to have any perspective). With the grandmother, the memories are generally repressed and unspoken but her grandchildren (who are staying with her while their parents are visiting the rich uncle in Hawaii) bring her memories to life. Grandmother's children seem to see the event as a little-understood somber event that is viewed more in terms of how it will interfere with their current lives. It is the four grandchildren of ages 12-18 (my guess) that serve as the catalysts for the expressions and reflections of the others. The Grandmother's older brother has been feting (off screen) some of her children and it is their concern about offending this US citizen that stirs the emotional reactions even further. A telegram sent to their uncle has given them the impression of having upset him. That, in turn, upsets them. For no understandable reason, his son (played absent-mindedly by Richard Gere) comes to visit them. The final scene is that of a search for an understanding that seems too elusive to find. The challenges and pitfalls of that search for meaning suggests that it may be why the world has largely left the event to history.

Americans have debated the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan that eneded WWII. There are still disagreements on that decision. I have always understood the decision to be the right one. I, like many others, feel this way because of the near suicidal way the Japanese seemed ready to defend their homeland to the last survivior. The act, in theory, saved untold thousands (maybe millions) of lives on both sides. However, it is still surprising to reflect that the US is the only country that ever used the atomic weapon on another country. Kurosawa's take on the morality of the act is to blame war and not countries. He may, however, have gotten some minor measure of revenge on Americans by having Richard Gere portray us so ineptly. May 17, 2008

Poetry, Japanese style...

As we all know, this is one of the last works of Akira Kurosawa, the Master in movie making.

He was also known by his friends as Kurosawa-san or by those who admired him as a teacher, as Kurosawa-sensei.

One of the things one immediately notices in his movies (especially in his later period, but even in some earlier works - although filmed in Black and WHite), is the Art of image and color composition. Kurosawa was a painter in his own right, a highly talented one at that.

Every scene is a "tableau" in which the action and the dialogues performed by the actors is just an additional element to the poetry Kurosawa intended to create for his movies.

So it is that even here in "Rhapsody in August", the theme of two families of the same common ancestry, but living in two totally different countries with almost completely different values, coming in touch with each other, forms a case study about conflicts and commonalities among two worlds.

We have seen many stories like these, but never so vividly told as here.
But this is not just another banal tale. The unfolding of the story is so masterful that it becomes a dance, a poetic dance.

What one also notices, is that our world and Kurosawa shown worlds are not so different as one may think. There is more to bind us, as human beings, than meets the eye.

Every time I watch a Kurosawa movie, I am in awe and wonder at how much life experience and passion this man did put into his work.

This is the true gift to all of us, as mankind.

Just now am I beginning to understand the full scope of Akira Kurosawa's work load. His legacy to us is hidden in each and everyone of his movies.

It is up to us to decipher them appropriately. This is the key, the true key, in order to fully understand the man Kurosawa.

Thank you Kurosawa-sensei.

I would say that this is a must have. April 20, 2007

Still life with atomic bomb

Even a master like Kurosawa must occasionally make a non-masterpiece. Overwhelmed by his own desire to make a political point, he forgot to be a story teller and "Rhapsody in August" ends up falling flat. Not that it is a bad film, as even a flat Kurosawa film is worth watching, and there are flashes of pure brilliance and some incredibly moving images, but on the whole it doesn't compare favorably with his body of work.

The story is an inter-generational one, focused on an aging grandmother, Kane, who hosts her grandchildren in her rural home in Nagasaki while their parents visit relatives in Hawaii. Kane is a hibakusha, one who experienced the dropping of the atomic bomb during WWII, during which her husband was killed. For Kane, the atomic bomb is a very real thing, while for her grandchildren it is a distant sob-story they were forced to memorize at school. Richard Gere makes an awkward appearance as Kane's half-American grandson from Hawaii, speaking stilted Japanese, but doing his best to fit into the overall story.

Much of the controversy on this film is about Kurosawa's point of view of Japan as a victimized nation of the US war crime of dropping the atomic bomb, a point of view that is very much prevalent in Japan even today. To the Japanese, the story of Nagasaki is very much that of regular civilians like Kane, who were not part of the war, who were not off killing and maiming in China or doing anything else the US politicians use to justify the bomb, but who suffered the brunt of the US attack in spite of their innocence. Much of the story rings true in this sense. When I visited the Nagasaki Peace Park, and saw the monuments donated by the nations of the world, I too looked for the US monument and was surprised not to find one. Seeing this scene played out on film hit close to home, and I realized that must be the general reaction to everyone who visits the park.

But the flaws of "Rhapsody in August" are not the controversial message, but just the general malaise of a film without inspiration. The scenes of the urban schoolchildren at play in rural Japan are excellent, and a spot-on Summer Idyll of kids that age stuck in that situation. Kane's scenes with Richard Gere are quite touching, showing the power of communication across generations and language, simply by being together. However much of the story seems to go forward in a heavy-handed rather than natural direction, and much of the dialog is stiff and unnatural. August 12, 2006

A Real Rhapsody, Like Maborosi - A Specialized Choice

This movie reminds me a lot of Maborosi: slow, beautiful, true ring to it for its conclusion.

If you want action, don't watch this movie. The actors seemed a little stiff all through the feature. And come on, no teenager stays with Grandma to help her remember her brothers and sisters! A few scenes were a little fake like that.

If you like Maborosi, you will like this movie. May 28, 2006

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