Annotated Bibliography: Rhapsody in August Home | Annotated Bibliographies | A Pale View of Hills | Rhapsody in August | Term Project

Rhapsody in August [Hachigatsu no kyoshikyoku]. Japan-Shochiku, 1991; Orion Home            Video, 1994.  Dir. Akira Kurosawa & Ishiro Honda.  Prod. Hisao Kurosawa.            Based on the novel Nabe no naka, by Kiyoko Murata.            Perf. Sachiko Murase, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Richard Gere. Anderson, Pat. “Film Reviews: Rhapsody In August.”  Films in Review 43.3 (1992).             117-119. This review recognized that Rhapsody might be one of Kurosawa’s last films and as such would be a fitting farewell. Anderson sees the film as evidence that Kurosawa still feels the “urgent need” to create one last parable that champions the human spirit. Anderson recognizes two distinct categories of Kurosawa films: 1) action sagas, and 2) moral tales. In the later the common man is embraced and their emotional nature is fully embraced. Anderson praises him for taking the subject head on, and realizing that such a huge subject can only be dealt with on a small scale. Anderson also notes that while the setting appears like a traditional Japanese film Kurosawa isn’t afraid to go for the heartstrings. He acknowledges the kids sometimes appear a little hokey, but like many other writers, praises Kurosawa’s sincerity. Anderson sees the final scene of Grandma Kane as a plea to end the inhumanity of war and to never forget/dismiss the past. [This article echoed many statements of other critics in a much more succinct fashion. It recognized shortcomings without brooding on them and applauded its successes without fawning on them.] B.N. Bernstein, Matthew, and Mark Ravina.  Film Reviews: Rhapsody in August.                American Historical Review October 1993: 1161-63. Bernstein and Ravina provide an insightful review on Rhapsody in August that falls short of completely favorable because of a perceived failure in the film's conclusion. The authors see the film as an ad hoc assembly of some of Kurosawa’s major themes such as the inability to resolve social problems through heroic actions of an individual and the lingering memory of nuclear terror and annihilation. “Rhapsody explores the tension between the healing power of recollection and the curse of memory (Bernstein and Ravina, 1161-1162).” The grandchildren in the novel and their Japanese American cousin are able to reach some sort of resolution by learning about what happened to their relatives in Nagasaki. The grandmother is tormented by these memories and in the films conclusion they become her undoing. The grandmother in the film, Kane, explains to her grandchildren how the bomb not only killed their grandfather but irreversibly changed both the city and its population. The children learn of the bombing through grandma’s stories. Kane’s children have gone to Hawaii to visit Kane’s long lost brother. Kane links the children to the past with magical stories. She also links the youngest boy with one of her brothers who went mad after the bomb. In this way Kurosawa builds bridges between the past and the present. The mangled playground memorial, one of the films most powerful images, is also the site of reconciliation between Clark and his Japanese family. The playground also merges a generation of bomb survivors, an American returning to his father’s homeland, and the next generation. Bernstein and Ravina also see the playground as one of Kurosawa’s favorite symbols representing “the vitality of youth and …hope for the future (1162).” They also point out the scene between Kane and Clark is often misunderstood as an apology for the U.S. bombing. Bernstein and Ravina see it as a personal apology, in which Clark, who was aware his family was from Nagasaki, had never considered that family had been lost in the bombing and that family duties might have prevented Kane from traveling. They see this apology as distinctly Japanese in that it is not concerned so much with guilt as with shame and concern for human feeling. While Clark is forgiven his adult cousins do not fair as well. Kane’s children are concerned only about offending their rich American cousin who they wrongly believe has come to Japan only to break off relations. They are unable to understand the reconciliation that takes place between Clark and Kane. Another poignant scene is at the waterfall while playing with the kids Clark learns of his father’s death. As in the first playground scene the sound is suddenly cut of associating the Japanese kids loss of their grandfather and Clark’s loss. In the end we find that while the children have benefited from memory Kane has not come to an acceptance of the past but rather it becomes a torture. The authors find that while her madness may be truly insightful it provides little comfort. [I think what these authors find the films greatest fault, the sudden shift at the end in which the resolution seems to be unraveling, might connect it best with A Pale View of Hills. Some memories are so strong and horrific that the generation who experienced them may be unable to live in peace with them. Both the film and book resist blaming the U.S. but rather look to more personal forms of guilt and shame. B.N.] Ebert, Roger.  Review of Rhapsody in August, by Akira Kurosawa.  Chicago Sun       Times on the Web 21 Feb 1992. 15 May. 2002 <http://www.suntimes.com      /ebert/ebert_reviews/1992/02/742126.html>.  Ebert gives this film three out of four stars. While Ebert recognizes it is not one of Kurosawa’s masterpieces his does recognize it as an effort to come to terms with the central event of the times. Like some other critics Ebert singles out as especially poignant the scene in which grandma Kane sits in silence with another elderly survivor remembering their dead. He sees this scene as not needed any dialogue; the memories need no speech. However, Ebert also points out to images like the eye in the sky, which he feels are liberties taken in old age that are not realistic. He also mentions the other images, the rose, the jungle gym, and the old woman walking into the storm and sees these as juxtaposed with the shallow lives of the young children and their parents. Ebert acknowledges much criticism about the scene in which Kane forgives the American cousin, Clark. He explains Kurosawa’s desire was to show the war was between governments not people and reflects his wish to close the subject in his career, if not the world at large.  [Like several critics, especially his harshest at the Cannes Film Festival, I felt Ebert missed the boat on Clark’s apology. He is not apologizing for the bomb, but rather that his American family had never considered they’d lost family there even though they knew they were from Nagasaki and the Kane may have other than logistical reasons for not wanting to come to the U.S.] B.N. Hinson, Hal.  Review of Rhapsody in August, by Akira Kurosawa.  Washington Post 8 Feb.         1992. 15 May.2002. <http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-        1047906/reviews.php?critic=all&sortby=default&page=1&rid=32950> While Hinson’s review is scathing at times it is also illuminating in others. He points out the film has delicate nuances that center around remembrance, but charges that they as so delicate as to leave them unmemorable. The bomb is identified as the defining moment in Grandmother Kane’s life and never far from her mind. Kane can barely remember her older brother and in searching her minds uncovers many painful memories. He sees the majority of the film as a patchwork of Kane’s stories and Kurosawa’s images. Hinson singles out the jungle gym as the films strongest symbol and describes “its simplicity (as) overwhelming.” Hinson believes both sides (Japan/U.S.) address the bomb as they should: “as a terrible example of human misery, a dark human chapter.” Hinson also takes the film to task for the too easy resolution offered by Clark’s apology and Kane’s forgiveness. He praises Murase’s performance, who as Kane serves as the films conscience. He disparages Gere’s performance as Clark for diverting the viewers’ attention and not belonging. Hinson also finds the children distracting and Kurosawa’s obvious efforts to educate a new generation about an emotional scar that might be healing beyond memory as somewhat juvenile. His does point out that the kids begin the film obviously fascinated by everything American but through the stories of the Grandmother also learn of their family and the bomb. [Hinson’s article is useful to me in the obvious connection it makes with A Pale View of Hills and its lives affected by the bomb on Nagasaki and use of remembrance in the narrative. Like Etsuko, while trying to remember Kane pulls up painful memories that have obviously not healed despite the surface appearance.] B.N. Richie, Donald. The Films of Akira Kurosawa. London: University of California             Press. 1996. 224-226.  The third edition of this text contains filmographies and treatments on every Kurosawa film up to 1993. Some of his earlier and more acclaimed films like Seventh Samurai are discussed in greater detail. However Richie spends the majority of the Rhapsody in August section discussing the films meaning not just retelling the story. Ritchie appreciates Kurosawa’s straightforward treatment of the subject but feels his use of the kids and Clark’s learning of what happened as “totally inadequate for its horrific subject (224). Richie believes Kurosawa wants people to remember and then forgive, but not those who turn to the U.S. for money. Clark comes out looking better, but Richie points out his “we were wrong” as totally weak given the context. He also points out Clark’s statement, “Seeing these people here… I can feel that day in Nagasaki” doesn’t seem believable and doesn’t help the reader feel it. Richie also doesn’t favor the nuclear eye effect but praises Kurosawa’s honesty and directness. Richie believes some of the most effective scenes are the silent ones like the Grandmother facing her friend in silence showing people can speak without words. Another similar scene is when Clark and little Shinichiro are watching the ants climbing the rose during the Buddhist service. This was one of Kurosawa’s most difficult sequences to film as the trained ants originally wouldn’t perform and they had to move to a lower elevation. Richie sees the final scene as an epiphany and it is also without dialogue. The sounds of the storm are interrupted by the refrain of the song about the rose. The song is about the heart of the rose, which the ants are working towards in the shot. A rhythm is set between shots flashing between the grandmother and the kids. Each shot becomes shorter as it progressing speeding things up. Kurosawa reportedly wrote of the women running into the storm as though into the heart of a red rose (226). Suddenly her umbrella is inverted into the shape of a flower. Richie applauds the parallels between the innocence of the children singing, the music, and the removal of worry and substitution of innocence, beauty, and survival. He sees this moment as an epiphany of the human spirit and a big save from the earlier didactic moments of the film. [I really like this review. Not only because it agreed with my interpretation of the films ending but also because it pointed out some of its flaws. It didn’t just do one or the other, praise or criticize, but rather did both in an insightful and well-rounded manner. B.N.]

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