Rhapsody in August 
(Hachigatsu no kyoshikyoku, Hachigatsu no rapusodî; Japan, 1991)
Written & Directed by Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998),
Shortcuts: Rhapsody in August | Akira Kurosawa | 

Plot Summaries:  
A visit from her grandchildren and the discovery of a half-American relative cause an elderly woman to relive her memories of the atomic bomb that fell on Nagasaki.

"An elderly woman living in Nagasaki Japan takes care of her four grandchildren for their summer vacation. They learn about the atomic bomb that fell in 1945, and how it killed their Grandfather. Richard Gere guest stars as an American nephew of the elderly woman."  Summary written by Matthew Rorie {mrorie@vt.edu} for Internet Movie Database:  http://us.imdb.com/Plot?0101991 [last accessed 4/24/02]

"In Japan, a family reunion around a matriarch, survivor of the bombing of Nagasaki, sparks her memories of that day, in a journey towards the understanding of human nature."  Summary written by Eric Gamboa {barramundi@hotmail.com} for Internet Movie Database:  http://us.imdb.com/Plot?0101991 [last accessed 4/24/02]

External Reviews linked by Internet Movie Database:
 http://us.imdb.com/TUrls?COM+0101991 

Ebert, Roger.  Rev. of Rhapsody in August, dir. by Akira Kurosawa.  Chicago Sun Times 21 Feb. 1992.  Rpt. Suntimes.com 
http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/1992/02/742126.html 
Ebert gives Rhapsody in August three stars:  "The film shows [Akira Kurosawa]  thoughtfully trying to come to peace with the central event of his times" and offers a simple message: "that war was between governments, not people." "Kurosawa has always been a director of great images..." for example: "a great eye which opens in the sky"; "a rose, engulfed by ants"; "the twisted jungle gym of a school playground"; and "the old woman, walking in wind and rain, her umbrella defiantly offered against the elements."  

Hinson, Hal.  Rev. of Rhapsody in August, dir. by Akira Kurosawa. Washington Post 9 February 1992.  Rpt. WashingtonPost.com. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/rhapsodyinaugustpghinson_a0a745.htm
"Akira Kurosawa's Rhapsody in August is a delicately nuanced film about remembrance -- so delicate, perhaps, that it's not terribly memorable itself. Its subject is the bombing of Nagasaki, though not so much the bombing itself as the event as it exists in memory. For Grandmother Kane (the 86-year-old Sachiko Murase), the blast, which caused the death of her husband and other members of her family, is her life's defining moment, never far from her thoughts."  "Most of the film consists of...stories, which the grandmother tells her brood of happy-go-lucky" grandchildren, who are "fascinated by America" and "to whom the bombing is a distant fact, known but only vaguely significant."  "The film's most powerful moment comes when the children make a pilgrimage to the schoolyard where their uncle was killed, and where the twisted metal of a playground jungle gym stands as a memorial. The single image of this tortured structure is the film's most vivid symbol. Its simplicity is overwhelming."  Hinson disparages the film because it seems to be geared toward educating "a generation of younger Japanese who may not, he feels, be adequately familiar with this crucial scar on their history -- a scar that, with time, may be fading into forgetfulness."

Akira Kurosawa trained first as a painter (he storyboarded his films as full-scale paintings), then entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, making his directorial debut in 1943. After working in a wide range of genres, he made his breakthrough film Rashomon (trans. In the Woods, Japan) in 1950.  Rashomon won the grand prize at the 1951 Venice International Film Festival (and other awards), gaining worldwide prominance and revealing the richness of Japanese cinema to the West.  It was followed by Ikiru (trans. To Live, Japan, 1952) and Shichinin no samurai (trans. The Seven Samurai, Japan, 1954; remade in the USA as The Magnificent Seven, 1960).  The films Kurosawa directed in the 1960s were very popular, and Yojimbo (1961) remains one of his major box office successes in Japan (information courtesy of Anne Wasserman, MIT, who references Donald Ritchie's Films of Akira Kurosawa [Rev. ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984] and recommends Yoshimoto's Akira Kurosawa). After lean periods in the 1960s and attempted suicide in the 1970s, Kurosawa re-emerged, with the help of admirers Francis Coppola and George Lucas, to make the samurai epic Kagemusha (trans. The Shadow Warrior, Japan, 1980), which won the Golden Palm from Cannes in 1980; followed by his second Shakespeare adaptation Ran (Japan/France, 1985), which was nominated for Oscar's Best Director in 1986 and won for costume design.  Kurosawa's films have been popular in the West (including adaptations of Western genres, authors, and works such as Dostoevsky's The Idiot (Hakuchi), Gorky's The Lower Depths, Shakespeare's Macbeth (Throne of Blood) and King Lear (Ran).  U.S. and European filmmakers have frequently imitated and remade his films.  

Kurosawa continued to work into his eighties with the more personal films like Dreams (1990) and Rhapsody in August (1991). In 1990, the Academy Awards presented Kurosawa with an Honorary Award for cinematic accomplishments in world cinema.  He was awarded the D.W. Griffith Award from the Directors Guild of America in 1992.  When Kurosawa died on 6 September 1998, Kabir Chowdhury states: "the world lost one of the greatest film-makers of all the time. His Rashoman (1950), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (Kumonosu jo, 1957) and Yajimbo (1961), to name only four of his remarkable creations, are glorious monuments to his imagination, sensitiveness and ability to handle his chosen themes and establish his particular cinematic style."

"Akira Kurosawa: A Tribute," Celluloid 20.3 [1998]; rpt. online by 
Asian Film Connections: Japan: http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/asianfilm/japan/
See also "About the Director":
 http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/asianfilm/japan/madadayo/director.html  
Internet Movie Database: http://us.imdb.com/ 

The Post-WWII period sees a proliferation of literary movements in Japan, as well as the rise of Japanese film and televised broadcasting.

One of Japan's most highly regarded postwar writers, Mishima Yukio, wrote a number of novels, plays, and short stories concerning his despair over the Westernization of his country and his desire for a return to the nobler Japan of earlier times. Among his haunting works are his first novel, the partly autobiographical Confessions of a Mask (1948; trans. 1960), and his tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility (1970; trans. 1972-75), an epic story of modern Japan. The death-obsessed Mishima ended his life by committing ritual hara-kiri.

"By the 1950s and 1960s, Japanese writers who were children and adolescents in the year of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had begun to tell the story of the sorrow in a way that might help them recognize themselves. Hiroko Takenishi's 'The Rite' [1963; trans. Eileen Kato] is one of the most powerful of these semi-autobiographical retellings" ("Hiroko Takenishi," Western Literature in a World Context, V. 2, ed. Paul Davis et al, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995; pp. 1889- 1908).

"In Children of the A-Bomb [1982], Arata Osado records the testimony of a boy who was a fourth-grader in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, when the crew of the B-29 bomber Enola Gray dropped the atomic bomb innocuously named Little Boy on that city. He remembers the refugee camp in some field in the Hiroshima suburbs, the stench of rotting flesh and bodies being cremated, the clouds of flies and mosquitoes, and his mother dying there of wounds and radiation sickness after almost two weeks of agony. He concludes his flat list of horrors by saying:

'Too much sorrow makes me like a stranger to myself,
and yet despite my grief I cannot cry.'

Akira Kurosawa: Japan - Highlighted Director
Japan: http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/asianfilm/japan/
Asian Film Connections (Asia Pacific Media Center, Univ. of So. Calif - Center for Scholarly Technology - Annenberg Center for Communication, 1999) "seeks to create a deeper awareness and understanding of Asian cinema by providing immediate and comprehensive information about films from Asia, especially the cinemas of China, India, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan." Great resource!!
http://www.asianfilms.org/netpac/
NETPAC: Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (Asia Pacific Media Center): Cinemaya is its official journal: http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/asianfilm/about/netpac.html

Akira Kurosawa (Dan Kim): http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/monkeys/273/index2.html

Akira Kurosawa Database (Nobuji Tamura, 1996, Temple Univ.).

Akira Kurosawa Movie Corner (Robert Red-Baer):
http://www.edogawa-u.ac.jp/robert/kurop28.html
http://www.edogawa-u.ac.jp/robert/kurosawa.html#top
...Toshiro Mifune (Robert Red-Baer):
http://www.edogawa-u.ac.jp/robert/Mifune.html#top

Bright Lights Film Journal: Japan features articles on "Akira Kurosawa" and "The Seven Samurai," by Gary Morris :http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/japan.html 

The Cross-Cultural Film Guide to Films from Africa, Asia and Latin America at The American University, by Patricia Aufderheide, offers synopses and commentary on selected feature films.

[Films of] Akira Kurosawa, Classic Film & Television (Michael E. Grost, 2000):
 http://members.aol.com/MG4273/kurosawa.htm#Kurosawa 

Dreams [Yume / Konna yume wo mita] has also been translated as Dreams/I Had This Dream & Akira Kurosawa's Dreams.
Mr Showbiz MovieGuide: Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

Mellon, Joan.  The Waves at Genji's Door: Japan Through its Cinema.  New York: Pantheon Books, 1976.

Univ. of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies:
http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs/
....Japan on Film: Guide to Japanese Film Prints
http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs/films/index.html
....Japanese Literature on Film (Japanese movie adaptations of Japanese literary works released in the United States): http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs/films/reviews/litonfilm.html
....Japan Resources/Links: "The information here is accessible to everyone, and may be especially useful for teachers who are looking to integrate films into their teachings on Japan, or things Japanese. The commentary, plot information, notes, and references are provided as a starting point for an exploration of these films and Japan. Film print availability is listed because of the difficulty in locating distributors of Japanese prints."
http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs/resources/overview.html

Akira Kurosawa

1943: Sanshiro Sugata (Sugata Sanshiro)

1944: The Most Beautiful (Ichiban Utsukushiku)

1945: 
Sanshiro Sugata, Part II (Zoku Sugata Sanshiro)
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (Tora no O o Fumu Otokotachi)

1946:
Those Who Make Tomorrow (Asu o Tsukuru Hitobito); co-directors: K Yamamoto and H Sekigawa
No Regrets for Our Youth (Waga Seishun ni Kuinashi)

1947: One Wonderful Sunday (Subarashiki Nichiyobi)

1948: The Drunken Angel (Yoidore Tenshi)

1949: 
The Quiet Duel (Shizuka Naru Ketto)
Stray Dog (Norainu)

1950: 
Scandal (Skyandaru a.k.a Shubun)
RASHOMON Directed by Akira Kurosawa.
Rashomon [videorecording] / Embassy Home Entertainment ; Embassy Home Entertainment, [c1980].83 min).  Original screen play filmed in 1950. Japanese, subtitled in English.
Rashomon is based on two short stories "In a Grove" and "Rashomon," by Ryunosuke Akutagawa (in Rashomon and Other Stories, trans. Takashi Kojima, New York: Liveright, 1952. "In a Grove," pp. 19-33; "Rashomon" pp. 34-44).
Performers: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura.
Plot Summary: A man is murdered; his wife is raped by a bandit. Kurosawa uses a stunning flashback technique to tell four different versions of what occurred. Sensuous imagery and dramatic action combine in this profound exploration of the quicksilver nature of truth.
COCC LIBRARY AUDIOVISUALS Video 426
Rashoman (Internet Movie Database):
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0042876

1951: The Idiot (Hakuchi)
Internet Movie Database:  http://us.imdb.com/Title?0043614

1952: IKIRU Directed by Akira Kurosawa
(Japan: Toho, 1952 - black & white; runtime: 143 min.) Trans. Doomed (1952); Living (1952), and To Live (1952). U.S.A. distr. Brandon Films - in Japanese with English subtitles; runtime: 140 min. )
Screenplay: Shinobu Hashimoto, Akira Kurosawa, & Hideo Oguni. 
Producer. Sojiro Motoki.
Original music: Fumio Hayasaka.
Cinematography: Asakazu Nakai. 
Starring: Takashi Shimura (as Kanji Watanabe).
Plot Summary: "Kanji Watanabe is a longtime bureaucrat in a city office who, along with the rest of the office, spends his entire working life doing nothing. He learns he is dying of cancer and wants to find some meaning in his life. He finds himself unable to talk with his family, and spends a night on the town with a novelist, but that leaves him unfulfilled. He next spends time with a young woman from his office, but finally decides he can make a difference through his job... After Watanabe's death, co-workers at his funeral discuss his behavior over the last several months and debate why he suddenly became assertive in his job to promote a city park, and resolve to be more like Watanabe" (Summary written by Mike Rosenlof, for Internet Movie DataBase: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0044741
Internet Movie Database: Ikiru
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0044741

1954: The Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai)
Internet Movie DataBase: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0047478

1955: Record of a Living Being (Ikimono no Kiroku)

1957: 
Throne of Blood (Kumonosu-jo)
Internet Movie Database: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0050613 
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0050613
The Lower Depths (Donzoko)

1958: The Hidden Fortress (Kakushitoride no San Akunin)

1960: The Bad Sleep Well (Warui Yatsu hodo Yoku Nemuru)

1961: Yojimbo
Internet Movie Database: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0055630

1962: Sanjuro (Tsubaki Sanjuro)

1963: High and Low (Tengoku to Jigoku)

1965: Red Beard (Akahige)

1970: Dodeskaden (Dodeskaden)

1975: Dersu Uzala

1980: Kagemusha 
Internet Movie Database: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0080979

1985: RAN Directed by Akira Kurosawa.
CBS/Fox Video, 1985. Run time: (160 min.) In Japanese with English subtitles.
Screenplay By Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Masato Ide
Executive Producer: Katsumi Furukawa; produced by Serge Silberman and Masato Hara
Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu, Mieko Harada, Yoshiko Miyazaki.
Plot Summary:  Kurosawa's brilliant rendition of Japanese history, Shakespeare's plot of "King Lear", and his own personal feelings about loyalty. Set in 16th century Japan, an aging ruler, Lord Hidetora, attempts to peacefully divide his kingdom among his three sons. Instead, they turn against each other and betray their father. Ruthless ambition, plots woven by scheming advisors and Hidetora's own past savagery combine in a whirlwind of chaos, ultimately driving the old man insane, shattering his kingdom, and destroying his family.
COCC LIBRARY AUDIOVISUALS VIDEO 1138
Internet Movie Database: RAN
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0089881

1990: Dreams (Yume)
Internet Movie Database:  Yume
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0100998

1991: RHAPSODY IN AUGUST (Hachigatsu no kyoshikyoku) 
See above & Internet Movie Database:
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0101991

1993: Not Yet... (Madadayo)

Of Related Interest:
JAPANESE PARADOX: SMALL FARMS & MEGA-CITIES (Program #12)
(COCC Library AV Video 1328, Program 11/12; G 128 .P69 1996)
Series:  THE POWER OF PLACE: WORLD REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY
Annenberg/CPB Collection; Executive Prod. Cambridge Studios, 1996
Narrated by H. J. de Blij.
Program links human societies and their natural environments.

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