Hiroshima

 

The disaster movie has been with us since the early days of cinema.  Once filmmakers realized the public's fascination with floods, fires, storms and asteroid-induced apocalypses there was no going back.  But for the man-made apocalypse of Hiroshima (1953), director Hideo Sekigawa, finally working without the censorship constraints of U.S. occupying forces, dodges the particulars of the blast itself and deals with the aftermath in a way that makes the emotional impact even moredevastating than the physical one.  

 

Structured as a flashback, the film begins with young students suffering from leukemia and assorted ailments from close proximity to the "flash-bang."  The event itself takes up the entire middle section of the film, documenting various survivors as they attempt to gather their families and escape the aftermath, a hellscape of flames, ruins and hideously burned bodies.  And, in the film's final flash-forward, the suffering continues for the next generation, portrayed as listless and unfocused, afraid of the next nuclear event.

 

Hiroshima, as you might expect, is a firmly anti-war film.  Sekigawa pulls no punches in his depiction of on-screen horrors; forcing the viewer to watch women and children die agonizing deaths.  And politics play a big role throughout, with finger pointing at a lack of American morals and equally upon Japanese aggression.  While the ethical debate surrounding the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki lives on, Sekigawa's film isn't afraid to condemn both sides for the consequences of their actions.  It's a movie - and a message - that's tough to ignore.

 

Arrow Film's Blu-ray release marks the debut of the film's complete version, essentially out of circulation since release.  This international edit certainly has some wear - similar to most Japanese films of the era - but never becomes too much of a distraction.  Extras include a 73-minute survivor's documentary, interviews and information video essay by Jasper Sharp who covers all of Japan's post-nuclear cinema topics.

 

 

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