Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Anssi Vartiainen The second to last film made by Akira Kurosawa. A film about three generations of Japanese forced to deal with the atomic bombing and its consequences. Also starring Richard Gere, for some weird reason.I'm vividly reminded of Isao Takahata of Studio Ghibli as I watch this film. He is a masterful film maker as well, but this is the first film from Kurosawa that I've seen where I felt I was not Japanese enough to fully get it. With Takahata that's most of his films. What the atomic bombs meant for Japan, and still do, is not something that can be easily understood by foreigners, and this film is not the one to explain it to them. Then again, I don't think that's its purpose. It's more of an essay to categorize how the Japanese themselves feel about the bombings.But, because I'm probably missing over half of what the film is trying to say, I'm left with a film that moves around languishingly, contains emotional cues which I have no way of getting, is very much subject matter over good story, and has Richard Gere in it.What am I supposed to say about a film like this? It's good. Probably. I assume... I mean, it's Kurosawa. And I don't regret seeing it. But I also didn't really get it.I need to study some history. Let's call it average in the meantime.

Hitchcoc This movie is not about whether the bomb should have been dropped. It is about war and the spoils of war. The grandma tells the children about death and destruction that happen when two forces attack one another. The problem in 1945 was that nuclear weapons were unleashed. However, going back in time, as soon as primitive man had sticks, they used them to bash each other over the head and the belongings went to the winner. This is a quiet tale of four Japanese teens who are being looked after by their grandma. She listens to them complain (even though their experiences are non-existent) and sends them off to investigate the city of Nagasaki. They are touched by the stories of the people who survived. They await a trip to Hawaii to see the brother of their grandmother, who is ill. Things get complicated due to the return of the parents and some miscommunication. The family is visited by a relative played by a very young Richard Gere. He is soft spoken and respectful. But the biggest scene stealer is the the grandma. She is so complex and believable. The final scene is striking cinematography. We learn the resiliency of the people and their efforts to hang on to the memories of those they lost and the evils of war in general. Quite a different tack for Kurosawa.

Ilpo Hirvonen Akira Kurosawa is highly appreciated around the globe for his epic-samurai adventures. Even that he made his most well known films in 1950's-60's, his career lasted from the early 40's to the 90's. n result of creating a high reputation with his samurai-films, many tend to forget that he made several films set in modern time, for instance: the unforgettable Heaven and Hell (1963) and Japan's modern version of Hamlet, The Bad Sleep Well (1960). Also in 1940's, when he started, he made several crime films set in present. In the year 1970, Akira Kurosawa directed his first color film, Dodes'ka-den. It instantly became a financial and critical flop, leading Akira Kurosawa to the edge of attempting a suicide. Five years later he made the touching story of nature, Dersu Uzala (1975), which won an Oscar for the best foreign film. In 1980's he managed to create to films, that still are very appreciated among film industry, including Ran (1985), which is based on Shakespeare's King Lear. In the 1990's Akira Kurosawa had still time left to finish three films, from which Rhapsody in August is the second last. It is a beautiful touching story as it is a fine reflection of his own career.A lonely elderly woman, Kane lives in the countryside of Nagasaki, harvesting her plants and taking care of her grandchildren. She is living a peaceful care free life close to nature, but heavy memories of past lay in the modern city of Nagasaki. The memories of the bombings in the WWII, August the 9th 1945, which killed her husband and several siblings. As the memorial day approaches Kane hears that her only living brother is in Hawaiji in The United States. Her brother and her children ask her to travel to Hawaiji to meet her brother, and see their fortune, wealthy life. For Kane, leaving her peaceful life behind, forgetting the cruelty of the war and going to the western world isn't easy.The state in Rhapsody in August is very important. In Kane's house we see nature and beauty, we hear the sounds of wind and water. When the grandchildren go to the city of Nagasaki, we see modern architecture and memorials, we hear the sounds of traffic and people. We can sense the feeling of war in the city. In Kane's house, one of her grandchildren is trying to fix Kane's old organ. This is the motive of the film and is a reflection of Rhapsody in August's themes. Accepting your past, fixing it and the collision of new and old.Akira Kurosawa achieves to make a portrait of three different generations, showing youth, adulthood and elderly. This might remind one of Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953), but as didn't Ozu so didn't Kurosawa fall into underlining the imperfections of the adults. They're blinded by modern living, wealth and avarice. But Akira Kurosawa shows this very gently, what can you expect from a director who had been making films for 5 decades.When Kane's brother's son, Clark (Richard Gere) arrives from the States, the adults and the grandchildren (and the audience) assume him and Kane to start arguing, and to not get along because of their pasts. How Clark's home country killed Kane's husband. This is one collision of past and present. The other is between the grandchildren and Kane, how could the new generation ever understand the horrors of Nagasaki. The horrors that have been buried under the new modern city. Is it possible for them to understand each other? Akira Kurosawa often used rain as a symbolist carrier of narrative, in some of his films rain made the film, it was the motive and led the situation together, for instance Kurosawa's breakthrough Rashomon (1950). When knowing this it is very beautiful to watch the ending sequence of Rhapsody in August. Where Kane runs to the rain, which remind her of the war, which will never let her alone, the past that will never let go. Her children and grandchildren run after her as the "theme song" of the film plays. A very beautiful sequence. Rhapsody in August is beautiful and sentimental, it can also be watched as a reflection of Kurosawa's life. He made a film that showed the true beauty of humane emotions and life. Rhapsody in August is a great historical film too but mainly it's about the collision of past and present, that happens all the time.

rooprect This is the toughest negative review I've ever written. I love Kurosawa's work; his films are deeply philosophical and unquestionably artistic. Also I have very deep sympathy and respect for the 200,000 Japanese civilians who were broiled alive when that idiot Truman decided to play boom boom with his new toy. As far as "preaching to the choir" goes, I AM THE CHOIR.But someone has to say it. This movie was awful. It was so clumsy and melodramatic that it made a mockery of both Kurosawa and the atomic tragedy he portrays. Like my title implies, it's the "ABC afterschool special" version of life after the atomic bomb, complete with a cast of sappy kids, an overly-sentimental script, amateur editing and a philosophical message so vapid that it wouldn't fill the back of a postcard.Have you ever sat around at Thanksgiving dinner listening to your great-grandmother ramble incoherently about something of great importance? She repeats herself. She takes 10 minutes to communicate the simplest thought. And when it's all over, no one knows or cares what she was talking about because the presentation was so damn irritating. That's what you get here.I'll give you an example of one scene. The scene shows the widowed grandmother praying before some lighted candles. It should be obvious that she's paying respects to her dead husband killed by the bomb. But just in case you didn't catch that--just in case you thought she was playing bingo or something--here's how the script goes:Kid #1: What's that about?Kid #2: Chanting Buddhist sutras.Kid #3: It's a service for the souls of the departed.Kid #2: It's August. Soon it'll be Atomic Bomb Day.Kid #3: August 9th.Kid #4: The day grandpa died.(camera lingers for 5 or 10 seconds)Oh puh-leez. I think we got the message ten minutes ago. What could have been a gripping moment is now just an irritating waste of film and dialogue (with bad acting to boot). I could see the audience collectively rolling its eyes, and I'm ashamed to admit I was rolling along with them.Don't even get me started on the people in the audience who reacted defensively, believing this to be an anti-American slam. Obviously it's NOT. But I can understand how people might come away with that impression. Kurosawa lays it on so thick that you can't help but feel like he's pointing the finger of blame. If he HAD made it an anti-American film (or at least anti-idiot-Truman), then I would have found it much more interesting. But instead, it's just an overinflated pity party that never ends. There's no conflict; all the characters agree that the bomb sucked. All the characters bow their heads. All the characters feel sorry. For 2 hours it's a one-way ticket to "waaah".Save yourself the violin strings. Skip this movie and watch the documentary "Nagasaki: The Horror and Legacy of Fat Man" (1995) which is a gripping testament to the suffering and madness experienced by the Japanese civilians. Or if you want to enjoy a GOOD sentimental film of Kurosawa, watch "Ikuru" (1952). But I can't think of a single reason why anyone would want to watch this movie.