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Films about the end of the world are nothing new. But films about the real end of the world–the moments in human history that seem to have put us on an inevitable path toward our own self-destruction–are less frequent. In the 1950s, as the Cold War took hold and the threat of nuclear war escalated, most of the films that came out dealt with it in terms of metaphor, usually sci-fi ones, like giant irradiated lizards and insects standing in for hydrogen bombs.

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer addresses one of those moments in history head-on, giving us not just a glimpse into the tormented mind of the “father of the atomic bomb,” but a you-are-there, immersive front row seat to the very moment in which the first bomb was detonated and the end of the human race came into clear view, starting with what many now consider to...

After her first two features as a director, “Love Letter” and “The Moon Has Risen”, actress Kinuyo Tanaka, best known for her roles in Kenji Mizoguchi’s “Ugetsu” and “Life of Oharu”, would continue her exploration of femininity, especially within focus of the Japanese society and tje traditional concepts of sexuality and marriage. Based on the life and works of Japanese poetess Fumiko Nakajo, “The Forever Woman” or “The Eternal Breasts”, which it was also called, would cement her status as someone with talents before and behind the camera. While Tanaka is mostly known for being an actress, current retrospectives focusing on her directing career shed some light onto this aspect of her life, showing a person well aware of the contradictions within the traditions of her home country, while also following paths which might constitute some kind of escape from these ideas.

“Forever a Woman” is screening at the...

Japanese cinema’s earliest attempt to depict the full impact of the 1945 atom-bomb attack is one of the best anti-Nuke movies ever… yet it somehow stayed under the radar of American awareness for decades. The bombing is seen from only eight years’ distance, when the nation was seemingly resisting coming to terms with its social and political implications; Hideo Sekigawa’s account includes some subtle commentary on the indifferent political response to the plight of the victims… even in 1953. Arrow’s extras include a Jasper Sharp video essay that fills in a lot of blank cinema history between Enola Gay and Godzilla. The impressive music score will seem familiar; it’s by Akira Ifukube.

Hiroshima

Blu-ray

Arrow Academy

1953 / B&w / 1:37 flat / 104 85 min. / Street Date July 14, 2020 / 24.99

Starring: Eiji Okada, Yumeji Tsukioka, Yoshi Katô, Masayuki Tsukida, Takashi Kanda, Isuzu Yamada.

Cinematography: Shunichirô Nakao, Susumu Urashima

Film Editor: Akikazu Kôno

Original Music:...

As part of their release slates for the months June and July 2020 Arrow Academy will release the classic Nagisa Oshima “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence” starring David Bowie and Hideo Sekigawa’s powerful documentary “Hiroshima”

Synopsis for “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence”

David Bowie stars in Nagisa Oshima’s 1983 Palme d’Or-nominated portrait of resilience, pride, friendship and obsession among four very different men confined in the stifling jungle heat of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java during World War II.

In 1942, British officer Major Jack Celliers (Bowie) is captured by Japanese soldiers, and after a brutal trial sent, physically debilitated but indomitable in mind, to a Pow camp overseen by the zealous Captain Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto). Celliers’ stubbornness sees him locked in a battle of wills with the camp’s new commandant, a man obsessed with discipline and the glory of Imperial Japan who becomes unnaturally preoccupied with the young Major,...

Both a landmark and a source of much controversy, “Hiroshima” is one of those films where the background is as significant as the picture itself. Let us take things from the beginning, by quoting Joseph Anderson and Donald Richie’s “The Japanese Film”. “In 1953, the Japan Teachers Union decided to go in with Kaneto Shindo and make a film version of the bestselling “Children of the Atom Bomb” (Genbaku no Ko) by Arata Osada. Shindo made a faithful film version, using the name of the book, and showed the aftermath of the bomb without any vicious polemic. (…) The Union was not at all satisfied, saying that he had “made [the story] into a tear-jerker and destroyed its political orintation.” They decided to back another version which would this time “genuinely to help to fight to preserve peace.” They found their man in Hideo Sekigawa, who turned out “Hiroshima”. (…) The picture was financially...

Yasujiro Ozu's cinephilia has been well known for some time now, especially his love of American movies. His existent early films are filled with gags and posters directly referencing Hollywood cinema. Recently, I found an unusually specific citation.

I always thought this bit of dialog in Late Spring (1949) was strange. It happens between unmarried Setsuko Hara and divorcee Yumeji Tsukioka; they're discussing Hara's recent meeting with a potential husband. When asked what she thinks of him, Hara replies, according to the subtitle translation, that he "looks like that American...the man in that baseball movie," which Tsukioka identifies as Gary Cooper. No doubt they are talking about 1942's The Pride of the Yankees. However, then comes this odd joke:

A weird, roundabout joke. Especially since we have yet to see—and never will—the man Hara met and eventually marries. But, to take the joke even further, one may remember...