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Whistle Stopper - Black Rain
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price:
Your Save: $ 19.98 ( 100% )
Availability:
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
Starring: Yoshiko Tanaka, Kazuo Kitamura, Etsuko Ichihara, Shoichi Ozawa, Norihei Miki
Directed By: Shohei Imamura
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786302096255
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 6302096251
Label: Fox Lorber
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Fox Lorber
Release Date: 2001-09-04
Running Time: 123
Studio: Fox Lorber
Theatrical Release Date: 1989-09-17
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Please don't buy at this price!!
Comment: I found a used DVD on eBay for $35. It wasn't worth it. The image is letterboxed, but so small that you have to blow it up to resolution-killing proportions. I also own the VHS and laserdisc of "Black Rain." The tape offers a MUCH better image. The laserdisc gives the best results of all. I am outraged at the prices being asked here. I really hope this great movie will be re-released with proper care, and that the people who want to rip you off will be left holding the bag.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Horrible Aftermath Of War: A Masterpiece!
Comment: This is a DVD that belongs in your cinema collection. I reveiwed the film again last night, and was surprised to find the film is out of print, and that the price listed is ridiculously high. If you can, wait until it is more reasonable. However, it is a remarkebly great cinematic masterpiece. The film was directed by Shohei Imamura, and stars Yasuko (Yoshiko Tanaka) as a young woman who must live with the consequneces of a changed life after the war: The setting is the city of Hiroshima. Yasuko was hit with the Black Rain, which fell on the survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, hence the title of the film. The film is based on the novel by Masuji Ibuse, who based the book on information he was able to gather from the survivors of the blast, and diaries of many others. This film is about how an entire family was affected by this bombing.
The film begins with the bombing of Hiroshima: A blinding light and sudden blast is seen and heard by the occupants of the city. The suvivors must somehow come to terms with the bombing, however, they are unaware of the effects the bomb will have on them later. The film is shot in black and white, and is very effective, if not more so if the film was shot in color. Yasuko (Yoshiko Tanaka) has been exposed to the 'Black Rain' [radioactive fallout], while looking for her family. There are some horrific scenes which Director Imamura shares with the viewers. Yasuko's life is now forever changed. Moreover, Yasuko's uncle, Shigematsu Shimuza (Kazuo Kitamura) and her aunt, Shigeko (Etsuko Ichihara) have been affected by the radiation. Yet, they all go about as if life must go on, trying to put the past behind them.
Further, everyone wants to go on with life as if the radiation and its effects are in the past. Yet, for Yasuko the past is always with her. When her aunt and uncle try to find her a suitable husband, the men who are eligible turn down marriage offers because they suspect that Yasuko has been contaminated, and that her health will be a problem. However, the only one that Yasuko feels comfortable with is a man Yuichi (Keisuke Ishida) who himself has been contaminated by the blast. The film is very moving and thought provoking. The film avoids any sensationalism of the events of August 6, 1945. Imamura instead focuses on those whose lives have been altered due to this tragic event in human history. This is not a political film, it is about the lives of those affected by this bombing, and how they cope with its aftermath. Highly recommended. [Stars: 5+]
Customer Rating:
Summary: A dedicated journey by an aunt and uncle
Comment: If you are a frequent viewer of foreign film, you may know that periodically, you need to view a film twice, especially with oriental films. In this case... Japanese, old film, similar looking people, complex names, lack of clear close-ups, etc.
So, if you don't care to see it twice, pay attention, as it is difficult to simultaneously read subtitles, figure who is who by face, name or situation.
The bomb that hit Hiroshima in 1945 is vividly portrayed with horrifying images. However, one scene shows a young boy with his face practically burned off and he begs that his brother recognize him. This was farfetched as the boy seemed to be without any pain or discomfort. But other images seemed more realistic. Over the length of the film, we see the deteriorating health of those hit by the bomb and the black rain, the radiation fallout.
But with few complexities in storytelling, this plot is rather simple. An aunt, and uncle and senile grandmother live with a niece and the goal is to get her married. The problem lies with a rumor that plagues the niece. Three potential suitors have reneged on the proposal because she is unhealthy because of the bomb. The struggle is to prove that it was not because of a direct hit from the bomb, it was just radiation fallout as the three were merely crossing through the devastated city in search of relatives.
Based on a true story, this is an emotional film that records the journey to simply marry off a young woman who is rumored with an unhealthy certificate for marriage.
Yes, the bombing was an atrocious act and I don't want to go there, so focus on the journey by an aunt and uncle in their quest to get their niece married before they die, because they too, were victims of the radiation fallout. See another excellent film by Inamura, The Ballad of Narayama .....MzRizz
Customer Rating:
Summary: Singing about the dark times
Comment: Ever since Theodor Adorno first raised questions about the possibility of making poetry after Auschwitz, art has been haunted by the possibility of its own failure, the possibility that one of its most remarkable features--its ability to shock the viewer into new ways of seeing--might be eclipsed by the great spectacles of mass death the extermination camps made possible. How could there be poetry after Auschwitz? To this question another could be added: Can there be cinema after Hiroshima? Or is all cinema doomed to failure given the incursions the mushroom cloud has made on our consciousness?
Perhaps one answer to that question can be found in Bertolt Brecht's poem "Motto" which, while avoiding the question of whether art can, in the face of the technology of mass death, preserve its special ability to re-focus our attention, affirms simply the persistence of poetic testimony:
In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing
About the dark times.
Like Brecht, Shohei Imamura's "Black Rain" refuses to remain silent in the face of the 20th century's great horrors, choosing instead the far riskier route of giving voice to them and of painstakingly documenting the devastating effects radiation has on a community while never once imagining that this message, if received, will be heard.
The film haunts the viewer much in the way that the world continues to be haunted by the events of August 6 and 9, 1945. Images linger in the mind long after the film ends, some horrific others hauntingly sad: a reunion of two brothers--one who has been burned so badly beyond recognition that the other at first draws back from touching him and asks for his name, the expedition to see the carp, and Yuichi surrounding Yasuko's house with the Jizo statues. Suffice to say that this is a film that must be seen.
The sad reality, however, is that this film is no longer available to the public, except in the form of very expensive used editions of the DVD. Because I feel strongly that this film deserves to be seen (especially given our highly fraught present) I have begun a petition that I am sending to a number of important international directors to restore and re-release the film. My hope is that in doing so the film will soon be available to the public again.
Eric Johnson-DeBaufre
Customer Rating:
Summary: Available now at a fraction of the prices advertised here!
Comment: Wonderful film as aptly described by previous reviewers. Just want to inform potential buyers that this film is now available at Amazon.fr.as "pluie noire". Subtitled in both French and English. So no need to purchase at the crazy prices avertised by marketplace sellers!
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