MOVIE REVIEW : Compelling Drama of Hiroshima Survivors

Shohei Imamura’s “Black Rain” (at the Westside Pavilion)--not to be confused with the recent Ridley Scott set-in-Japan action-thriller--takes its title from a phenomenon that occurred in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Moisture in the air, permeated by radioactive ash, condensed into rain and fell in dark, lethal drops.

The heart of the the matter is the psychological torment of those who must live with the uncertain, unpredictable nature of having been exposed to such radioactive fallout. They worry for themselves and for each other; they are terror-struck by merely feeling under the weather. Imamura makes palpable the agony of living with the unknown.

“Black Rain,” which was shot appropriately in black-and-white and has a discreet Toru Takemitsu score, is of course implicitly an anti-nuclear protest and a very strong one at that. But it also a protest of discrimination against the atomic bomb survivors, who number today approximately 370,OO0, and it furthermore belongs to a large group of Japanese films concerned with exposing the terrible price exacted of ordinary citizens by World War II.

Based on a 1969 novel drawn from diaries and interviews with actual Hiroshima survivors, “Black Rain” opens in the immediate aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima and tells the story of a family of survivors, a middle-aged couple, Shigematsu and Shigeko Shizuma (Kazuo Kitamura, Etsuko Ichihara) and their niece Yasuko (Yoshiko Tanaka). Only the aunt and uncle actually were in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing, although Yasuko was exposed to the black rain.

Of all the major films of Imamura, one of the most distinctive and powerful filmmakers in the world, “Black Rain” is the most conventional, perhaps because of the enormity of the catastrophe with which he is trying to come to terms. It is in fact a tribute to his ability to compel us that his film recovers and develops a timeless sense of urgency from what seems a major miscalculation at its start. For instead of relying upon archival footage, Imamura re-creates the immediate after-effects of the bombing upon the citizens of Hiroshima, with scores of people wandering about with their flesh literally melting like wax. Their hideous wounds, however, are patently fake yet so horrible as for us to resist suspending disbelief--we’re relieved and glad to be able to realize that it’s all just make-up. As a result, it takes a considerable amount of time to get caught up in the story--to accept its reality in all its relentlessness.

Eventually, however, Imamura’s abiding preoccupation, which is obsessive behavior, comes into play. The Shizumas commence resuming a semblance of normal existence at the country estate of the uncle, a wealthy landowner and the dominant figure in a small, idyllic-looking rural community. All three seem perfectly healthy, and they look forward happily to Yasuko’s imminent arranged marriage. But when the engagement is broken off--Yasuko’s prospective in-laws fear she really is not healthy--a heartbreaking pattern is set in motion, for Yasuko discovers she is permanently stigmatized by her exposure to the black rain. Meanwhile, the Shizumas and their neighbors are learning that the atom bomb has in effect set off within all exposed to it a time bomb in the form of radiation sickness.

Imamura is most effective at getting his actors to suggest what it is like to confront and live with an enduring, slowly-consuming sense of horror. By the time “Black Rain” (Times-rated Mature) is over its impact is akin to that of Lynne Littman’s galvanic nuclear holocaust drama “Testament.”

‘BLACK RAIN’

An Angelika Films release. Producer Hisa Iino. Director Shohei Imamura. Screenplay Toshiro Ishido, Imamura; based on the novel by Mauji Ibuse. Camera Takashi Kawamata. Music Toru Takemitsu. Art director Hisao Inagaki. Film editor Hajime Okayasu. With Yoshiko Tanaka, Kazuo Kitamura, Etsuko Ichihara, Shoichi Ozawa, Norihei Miki, Keisuke Ishida. In Japanese, with English subtitles.

Running time: 2 hours, 2 minutes.

Times-rated: Mature.