I finally popped my Kurosawa Cherry and I have to say, it was a little disappointing. Not nearly as long as I would have liked, no intensity, and I can't believe I had to wait half an hour before - Anyway, here it goes.
Rhapsody In August, 1991, is one of Akira Kurosawa's last films. It could be said to be one of his weakest films (just my luck) but is nevertheless well-made, and a good story. The film centers around an old lady, Grandma Kane, a Hibakusha, and her four Grandchildren one summer in her home in the mountains near Nagasaki. Kane is a Bomb survivor (that's what Hibakusha means) and a Bomb widow - her husband was teaching in a school near Ground Zero on the day. Forty-five years later, they get a letter from Hawaii, from someone claiming to be Kane's older brother, who moved away before the war and built a Pineapple Empire (Those Damn Imperialist Japs!) from scratch. The kids' parents go to visit them, leaving them with Grandma, who doesn't really remember her 10 brothers and sisters, and frankly, doesn't care.
Here is where you really start seeing what the film is about - The Generation Gap, their differences in viewpoints, the clothes they wear, things like that.
The kids (who wear jeans and t-shirts with American brands on them) have a difficult time adjusting to life in their Grandma's simple country home, where they are bored out of their skulls. Their primary concern is convincing Grandma to agree to go to Hawaii, because that would be so cool. They reconnect with the Nagasaki Situation, because earlier it was something they just read about in school. They visit Ground Zero, and their Grandfather's school, where a mangled, half-melted jungle-gym is left as monument to those who died on August 9 (Some critics have said this sequence, among some others, seemed to antagonize Americans and showed a very biased, one-sided view of the War; but personally I feel it was a depiction of the Aftermath of the War.)
Grandma, almost stereotypically, really enjoys taking care of her children, and telling them stories of her younger days - about the day of the Bombing, the Kappas in the waterfall, and her brothers. The children, though attentive, seem to have a hard time to actually connect to the situation (but the children were definitely weak characters and were mainly in the film to either listen to Grandma Kane or narrate about Nagasaki) The children are best seen as a representation of the third generation (Sansei, Look at me go!) after the Bomb, showing that they care, while still being hopelessly disconnected, and of course, still being kids from the eighties.
Kane's children return from Hawaii, raving about their new rich relatives; revealing something else about Human Nature, and (I guess) the Japanese equivalent of Baby-Boomers. They hadn't told the Hawaiians about Grandpa dying because of the Bomb, in case they offend them (and more importantly cause them to lose their possible Pineapple Plantation jobs), but they find out anyway, because of a telegram Grandma sent.
The Hawaiian brother's son, Clark (Richard Gere), who is a Second-Generation Japanese American (Nissei, I'm getting really good at this) comes when he finds out, and expresses his sorrow over not realizing it before. There is a scene where he first meets Grandma Kane, and apologises for not doing much for his Aunt, to which she replies "That's all right" in Japanese, and "Sank You Bery Much" in English, which was again taken by critics to be depicting an American apologizing to a Japanese for the Bomb, failing to see it as a Japanese-American apologizing to a Family Member, for personal reasons. Clark's visit, Kane's children's dreams of riches, are stopped short when they receive a telegram telling him of his father's (Kane's Brother's) death. Kane feels deeply for this, apologizes for not meeting her brother one last time before his death, after which she starts reliving the past, braving the storm to go to Nagasaki to find her husband in the final scene.
I couldn't find any of the famed Kurosawa trademarks except for the use of the Weather to forward the story and reflect emotions, and the fine authenticity of the costuming and other 'minor' props. Not a single wipe, in other words.
The film contains some memorable scenes, such as the one where Kane's friend comes to meet her, to remember those who died on the day, and they sit across from each other, talking by being completely silent; When they hold the memorial at the Buddhist shrine Kane goes to, and the youngest grandchild sees a line of ants from the shrine to a blazing pink rose, referencing a song the children keep singing, Schubert's 'Heidenroselein'. And of course the final scene of the film, where Kane is seen walking into the torrential rain, with just her frail umbrella for protection, while her grandchildren run after her; the absolute final scene being Kane marching against the storming rain, her umbrella turned inside out by the wind, resembling a flower, held like a gun, with the strains of the Heidenroselein song heard in the background.
I still don't know what the song actually means, but it makes for one helluva scene.
Not exactly what I expected of Kurosawa, but still worth a watch. His older stuff is much better I've heard.
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