Rhapsody in August

Amazon.com

The final film released in the U.S. by Japanese master Akira Kurosawa looks at the atomic blast at Nagasaki from a distance of more than 40 years, through the eyes of a woman who survived it--and the grandchildren who are spending the summer with her. Though she tries not to think about it, the memory of the bombing is with her every day, in the family she lost and the scars she still carries. But the grandchildren insist on seeing the memorial, which brings it home to her once again--and to us. Though sometimes slow going (and what is Richard Gere doing in this movie, as her Amer-Asian nephew?), Rhapsody in August is a story about family and about living in the present while never being allowed to forget the past. --Marshall Fine

Description

Academy AwardÂ(r) winner* Akira Kurosawa (The Seven Samurai) delivers 'the most intimate drama of his career (Los Angeles Times), a stunning epic that is as visually tantalizing as it is emotionally touching. Set in the gorgeous countryside surrounding Nagasaki and starring Sachiko Murase, Hidetaka Yoshioka and Golden GlobeÂ(r) winner Richard Gere, this endearing saga follows a Japanese family once torn apart by war and now facing personal demons brought on by contact with American cousins lost long ago. Sachiko Murase is stunning as the aging matriarchof a Nagasaki family that has long lived with a legacy of horror brought on by WWII. But when an older brother she never knew she had resurfacesalong with his Japanese-American descendantsshe must come to terms with her most deeply held feelings about America and her haunted past. *1989: Honorary Award

Customer Reviews:

Poetry, Japanese style..........2007-04-20

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.

Still life with atomic bomb.......2006-08-12

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.

A Real Rhapsody, Like Maborosi - A Specialized Choice.......2006-05-28

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.

Kurosawa's Majesty on a Low Flame in Minor League Anti-War Film.......2005-08-02

The best of intentions certainly infuse Akira Kurosawa's penultimate film released in 1991, but unfortunately it really doesn't move me despite the worthy subject of dealing with the years-later aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped in Japan. Much of the problem is the glacial pacing and the stilted emphasis on the children's perspective which prevents the film from gaining any subtlety or emotional resonance. Set forty-five years after the end of WWII, the plot centers on four Japanese children who visit their grandmother Kane in Nagasaki for the summer. As the anniversary of the atomic attack draws near, they learn about the bomb's deadly legacy. Their grandfather died in the blast, and as we learn, Kane has never really resolved her quiet resentment. Every August, she pays tribute to her dead husband at a religious shrine. Unfortunately, Kurosawa paints the children in such broad, sitcom-level strokes that make it nearly impossible to empathize with their inquisitive concern about their grandmother.

On the other hand, 86-year old Sachiko Murase is exquisite as the wizened Kane as she exhibits the inner conflict within her character when she realizes she may have to face the prospect of meeting Japanese-American relatives in Hawaii, including an older brother she cannot recall knowing among ten siblings. The brother, who has become a naturalized American citizen and married a Caucasian, is ailing and wants to see Kane before he dies. Desperate to visit Hawaii, one of the children writes a letter to the brother, which prompts the brother's son to visit to apologize for the bombing. The weight of a national conscience seems overemphasized here, especially as embodied by Richard Gere in an extended cameo as the brother's half-Japanese son, Clark. Gere's appearance, despite his good intentions in light of his pacifist position, is distracting to say the least, especially since he does not look the least bit Japanese. While his accent is decent enough, his cadence when speaking is halting to the point of sounding rather Berlitz-trained. It's actually not a bad performance but certainly not a necessary one given the number of Japanese-American actors who could have played the part with greater ease.

The film ends on a rather surreal note as Kane fights a rainstorm that has clouds that remind her of the bomb's immediate aftermath. This sequence is fraught with symbolism but seems emotionally vague as it goes on endlessly. There are random moments when the Kurosawa touch is evident, for example the composed shots of the old women in prayer or the use of a gnarled jungle gym as a symbol of the bomb (and perhaps as a tribute to the playground built in his classic film, "Ikiru"). He also effectively uses Vivaldi's "Stabat Mater" as background music during key scenes. At the same time, as a Japanese-American, I was hoping that Kurosawa would have delved into the complexities of the decisions behind the atomic bomb and how the Japanese have attempted to reconcile the act with their own culpability during the war. Instead, the movie becomes a highly simplified anti-war polemic under the guise of a family film.

Most beautiful film.......2005-06-27

In Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece, a group of young people, through the guidance of their aging grandmother, discover what it means to grow up during the bombing of Nagasaki. The link to their past appears in the form of the AmerAsian cousin, who solemnly joins them at the memorial but then must return to Hawaii for the death of his father. As the elders age and near death, it is the children who witness life through new eyes, whose vision is tempered by the wisdom of their elders who have seen the unspeakable and yet live long enough to transmit the knowledge and the reverence for life in the face of man's destructive folly that is war.

DVD:

DVD

DVD