Black Rain

UPC: 737187011528

Studio: Animeigo

MPAA Rating: 18Up   Contains:[Violence, Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Sexual Situations]

Summary: The title refers to the radioactive fallout which descended upon ruined city of Hiroshima after the dropping of the first atomic bomb. Young bride-to-be Yoshiko Tanaka has the misfortune to be visiting Hiroshima on the day of the explosion. Incredibly, she is unhurt; she returns to her own village, across the bay from Hiroshima. Unfortunately, her townsmen have been profoundly affected by the "black rain"; over the next five years, the poison in their systems slowly but surely erodes their souls. In a tragic state of denial, Yoshiko's former friends insist that they can't be sick-it must be the girl who is bringing sickness to them. Now a pariah, Yoshiko's life is shattered as surely as if the bomb had disintegrated her upon impact. Director Shohei Imamaura, a onetime assistant to the great Ozu and the director of such Japanese classics as The Insect Woman and The Ballad of Narayama, never sensationalizes his material; the story is effective told in a muted, subdued fashion, allowing the horror to arise from the inner torment of the characters rather than being artificially imposed by camera trickery or "shock" cutting. Based on a novel by Masuji Ibuse, the black-and-white Black Rain won the Japanese equivalent of the Academy Award, along with several other honors. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Grand Technical Prize – Cannes Film Festival Best Foreign Film – Independent Spirit Awards Film Presented – Telluride Film Festival

Features: Alternate color ending
Interview with assistant director Takashi Miike (Audition & Ichi the Killer)
Interview with Yoshiko Tanaka
Trailers
Cast & crew biographies
Multimedia vault
Program notes
Image gallery

Black Rain

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 10/20/2009

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 123 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Subtitles: English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Black Rain
1. Chapter One [6:38]
2. Chapter Two [7:56]
3. Chapter Three [6:22]
4. Chapter Four [6:37]
5. Chapter Five [5:30]
6. Chapter Six [7:07]
7. Chapter Seven [7:28]
8. Chapter Eight [6:53]
9. Chapter Nine [7:26]
10. Chapter Ten [5:48]
11. Chapter Eleven [7:56]
12. Chapter Twelve [4:29]
13. Chapter Thirteen [4:11]
14. Chapter Fourteen [7:01]
15. Chapter Fifteen [6:19]
16. Chapter Sixteen [6:28]
17. Chapter Seventeen [6:43]
18. Chapter Eighteen [8:46]

Jonathan Crow

Few films have captured the horror of the atomic explosion over Hiroshima and the cruelty of the bomb's effects as devastatingly as Shohei Imamura's masterful Kuroi Ame. Adapted from the prize-winning novel by Masuji Ibuse, which was in turn adapted from the diaries of Ibuse's friend Shigematsu Shizuma, Kuroi opens with a harrowingly realistic depiction of how, in an instant, a thriving city can become a surrealistic hell of burning buildings, freakish weather, and charred flesh. Shooting in stark black-and-white, Imamura confronts yet rivets the audience with one atomic horror after another, until the viewer is overwhelmed. Suddenly, the film fast-forwards to the tranquility of the immediate post-war era, only to reveal the long-term terror of the bomb. Protagonist Shigematsu suffers from radiation sickness, which renders the seemingly robust middle-aged man weak and without energy; his friends suddenly keel over dead from the disease. Yet, not content with only illustrating the human devastation of the bomb, Imamura focuses with almost equal ferocity on the backward societal prejudices that bomb survivors endure. Five years after the blast, villagers complain about the laziness of the enfeebled bomb survivors, while Shigematsu's niece Yasuko, who escaped Hiroshima without apparent injury, cannot find a husband in spite of clean bill of health. More restrained than such Imamura classics as The Pornographers (1966) and Vengeance is Mine (1979), this film still bears his imprint: a fascination with the fringes of Japanese society; strong-willed, overtly sexual women; and his signature earthy humor. This film, which swept the Japanese Academy Awards and received a prize at the Cannes Film Festival, stands as both a great film by a cinematic master and a searing testament of the atomic age. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Toru Takemitsu  Composer (Music Score) 
Hisa Iino  Producer 
Shohei Imamura  Director 
Shohei Imamura  Screenwriter 
Toshiro Ishido  Screenwriter 
Yoshiko Tanaka  Actor 
Kazuo Kitamura  Actor 
Etsuko Ichihara  Actor 
Shoichi Ozawa  Actor 
Norihei Miki  Actor 
Keisuke Ishida  Actor 

Country: Japan