Equipped only with a
blown out umbrella twisted into the shape of a flower, an old lady, like
some ancient Samurai warrior, braves a blinding rainstorm to plea for ending
the inhumanity of war. One of his most lyrical and poetic works, Akira
Kurosawa's second to last film, Rhapsody in August is about four young
Japanese teenagers who stay with their grandmother one summer near Nagasaki
and learn about the atomic destruction of their city on August 9, 1945.
The film is both a lament for the suffering caused by militarism and an
outcry against the world's collective loss of memory.
When the children visit
their elderly grandmother, Kané (86-year old Sachiko Murase), she
tells them that their grandfather died in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki,
an event in their country's history that they know very little about. Concerned
that the teenagers cannot understand the suffering that had occurred, and
the possibility of such an event occurring again, Kané relates personal
stories about her experience on that terrible day. Building bridges between
generations through her stories, she is able to have the children look
past the consumerist values instilled in them by their parents and discover
both their countries heritage and the values in life that are most important.
As the old woman tells each tale, the children are both curious and moved
by their power and mysticism and visit the sites she describes in her stories.
They see the decaying
remains of two old trees intertwined forever after a lightning storm. They
visit the school yard where their grandfather died and see what is left
of a jungle gym, now a pile of melted twisted metal that has become a memorial
to those children and adults that suffered and died on that day. The film
is haunted by Kané's attempt to cope with the emotional consequences
of the bombing, an event that most are unable to remember, but that she
is unable to forget. She tells the story of her younger brother, a painter,
who could only paint eyes, specifically a large red eye, the "eye of the
flash" that signaled the disaster in which 39,000 people were killed and
an estimated 75,000 died years after.
The children's parents
have gone to visit Kané's brother who emigrated tom Hawaii in 1920
to run a pineapple plantation and married a Caucasian American. One of
ten brothers, Sujijiro, now in failing health, wants to see his sister
before he dies but she is reluctant to go in spite of the urging of the
children who drool over pictures of her brother's affluent surroundings.
When the parents return from Hawaii, wishing to establish good relations
with the wealthy Hawaiian family, they try to persuade Kané to go.
When Clark (Richard Gere), Sujijiro's son, flies to Nagasaki, the parents
are sure it is because he wants to end the proposed visit, resenting the
implication that America caused his Uncle's death.
When Clark arrives, however,
the family discovers the opposite. Although Gere does not look the part
of a Japanese-American, his warmth, sincerity, and passion for peace more
than compensate and his time in the film is one of the highlights. He first
expresses his remorse for his uncle's death in the bombing and visits the
shrines in Nagasaki with the four children and their parents. Some critics
say the film alludes only to the dropping of the atomic bomb and not to
any of the events that preceded it, including the surprise attack on Pearl
Harbor. However, it is clearly Kurosawa's intention to dramatize the futility
of war, not the wrongdoing of one country.
In a tender conversation
with Kané, Clark apologizes for what he "should" have said but Kané
repeatedly and simply responds, "it's all right", blame it on the war",
pointing out that many Americans as well as Japanese died in the fighting.
Kané agrees to go to Hawaii but only after joining in a memorial
service to the Nagasaki victims, repeating the mantra of Avalokiteshvara
Bodhisattva (Buddhist deity), "Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha"
- "gone, gone, everyone gone to the other shore". One of the loveliest
scenes in the film is the sight of a colony of ants climbing the stem of
a rose bush, a final epiphany suggesting that amidst the destruction, beauty
and hope survive.
GRADE: A
Howard
Schumann