Hachi-gatsu no kyôshikyoku (1991)

Director:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Kiyoko Murata (novel)
Akira Kurosawa (writer)

Release Date:

20 December 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

An elderly woman living in Nagasaki Japan takes care of her four grandchildren for their summer vacation...

Plot Keywords:

Japan | Elderly | Nagasaki Japan | Memory | Atomic Bomb

Awards:

5 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Sachiko Murase	...	Kane
Hisashi Igawa	...	Tadao
Narumi Kayashima	...	Machino
Tomoko Otakara	...	Tami
Mitsunori Isaki	...	Shinjiro
Toshie Negishi	...	Kane's daughter
Hidetaka Yoshioka	...	Tateo
Choichiro Kawarazaki	...	Noboru
Mieko Suzuki	...	Minako (as Mie Suzuki)
Richard Gere	...	Clark (as Richâdo Gia)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Shizuko Azuma
Satoko Hayashi
Masahito Hirose
Noriko Homma
Fumiko Honma	...	Mourner
Ayao Imada
Tomi Iwasawa
Wasuke Izumi
Saburo Kadowaki
Hiroko Kamaya
Maru Kariya
Tsuyo Kataoka
Shigeo Kato
Setsuko Kawaguchi
Natsuyo Kawakami
Michio Kida
Yoshie Kihira
Sakae Koike
Akiji Maeda
Hiroko Maki
Yoshiko Maki
Ise Maruyama
Kappei Matsumoto
Goichi Nagatani
Kiyoshi Nakamura
Chiyono Nakayama
Junpei Natsuki
Ei Ogata
Masako Oka
Teru Oki
Kinu Ono
Matsue Ono
Kumeko Otowa
Sachio Sakai	...	Mourner
Akio Sakita
Takatoshi Shimohira
Yukie Shimura
Yukie Sugisaki
Tomo Takano
Fumi Takeshita
Tadashi Tomonaga
Kimi Toshita
Yoshiko Tsuji
Haruko Uesugi
Torauemon Utazawa
Koji Wada
Tai Yamaguchi
Mieko Yasunaga
Katsuji Yoshida
Chiyoko Yoshihara
Haruo Yoshihara
Hideko Yoshiyama

Also Known As:

Hachigatsu no rapusodî (Japan) (poster title)
Rhapsody in August (International: English title)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Fujicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | Singapore:PG | Argentina:Atp | Chile:TE | Finland:S | Germany:6 | Peru:PT | Sweden:7 | UK:U | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Amagi-Yugashima, Shizuoka, Japan

Company:

Feature Film Enterprise II

Quotes:

Kane: I got old and so did this organ.

Movie Connections:

References Sora no daikaijû Radon (1956)

Soundtrack:

Stabat Mater

Holds up against his best films

Akira Kurosawa is one of my very favorite filmmakers. If you search through my reviews, I have written about a few, The Seven Samurai, High and Low, Kagemusha, and Dreams. I have seen many more, Rashomon, Ikiru (my personal favorite), Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Dersu Uzala, and Ran. I have only disliked one, High and Low, but not one of his films failed to amaze me in some way or other. My initial opinion, after seeing Rashomon, The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Ran and Kagemusha was that he was an amazing stylist whose films felt slightly impersonal to me. I strongly disagree with that opinion now (I expressed it in my review to Kagemusha, which I'm surprised hasn't resulted in tons of hate mail).

I have just finished watching Kurosawa's second to last film, Rhapsody in August. It is not highly regarded, usually dismissed as a very minor work in a master's portfolio. This I also discovered about my second favorite of his films, Dreams. Well, as far as my opinion, I think people were dead wrong about both of these films.

Rhapsody in August is not a stylistic masterpiece like The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, or Ran. Instead, only second to Ikiru, it is Kurosawa's most humanistic film. I have only seen one film by him (although I've read a lot about him), but I would compare it more to Yasujiro Ozu's work.

This film has a plethora of themes, ranging from the effect of the H-Bomb on both the Japanese and the Americans, the generation gaps between the three generations present (the matriarch of the family feels separate from her middle-aged children, but she relates well to her grandchildren who are interested in their country's sorrowful history), and the effect of American culture on the Japanese of the present generation. It is quite a handful, but everything is handled so subtly that some viewers who don't pick up on it all may easily grow uninterested. In some ways, the film feels very didactic (in a good way). I can imagine this film being showed to younger children, since the four grandchildren, at least at the beginning, are learning about the history of the bomb and Nagazaki and their grandfather's death.

The only weak point of the film is probably the very end, which is difficult to understand. I have a feeling that there was some cross-cultural barrier preventing my understanding of it, so if anyone does get it, please contact me. Anyway, as I perceived it, the film ended kind of randomly. But still, what has come before is too good to get too upset by the lack of closure. It deserves a 10/10.