Synopsis
The film shows the bombing of Hiroshima and the horrific aftermath following the detonation of an atomic bomb on humans for the first time in history.
Hiroshima
1953 ‘ひろしま’ Directed by Hideo Sekigawa
Cast
Director
Additional Directing
Producer
Writer
Editor
Cinematography
Art Direction
Composer
Sound
Popular reviews
More-
While it contains some of the most haunting imagery I have ever seen (most notably a bunch of badly injured school kids singing their school song together following the bombing), I wish there had been more to it. It makes perfect sense as to why the director would be focused on the immediate impact of the bombing, and the lasting effects of radiation sickness, but I think the almost vignette style to the film feels a little too uneven and unnatural.
Some of the performances also felt a little off (I’m not sure how to better articulate it), but critiques aside this film is very powerful visually. I almost think it could’ve worked without the first and last 20 minutes.…
-
As a silent film with Akira Ifukube’s score this would have been a masterpiece. Unfortunately, a few of the performances pulled me out a bit, especially early on. The middle of the film is damn near perfect though, Nakao and Urashima’s cinematography reminds of Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc as well as the photography of Sebastião Salgado. Really thankful to Arrow for the new restoration.
-
While in Japan, I visited the Peace Museum. The displays of what went on in Hiroshima with the dropping of the atomic bomb were nightmare-inducing. This film stops just short of capturing that extreme horror, but it is still an incredibly powerful motion picture.
The scene depicting the bomb explosion comes as a surprise. Residents are accustomed to American planes triggering air raid alerts. On the day of the bombing, there was no warning siren. A flash, the powerful force of the explosion, and the characters are plunged into a living Hell.
Highly disturbing moments such as the falling of Black Rain and the burn victims seeking refuge in the lethal waterway feel terribly real. In… -
A harrowing view of hell on earth, and an absolute tragedy. The film is wisely very critical of Japanese militarism with its own atrocities, fanaticism, and reaction in the aftermath of Hiroshima before a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The moments when the devastated people are walking around like zombies trying to get food and the official is shouting nationalistic garbage at them are brilliant. The film also asks the question whether this target, with so many civilians, was necessary, and whether it had something to do with race. It also has strong messages for peace, to avoid such events in the future, since the Atomic age had begun. Whatever your beliefs are for whether the bombs were necessary or not (there are some amazing summaries of both positions on Wikipedia btw), the human suffering is undeniable, and heartbreaking. Even if it makes for 105 brutally sad minutes, this film is as important today as it was in 1953.
-
Hiroshima ist ein Einblick in die Zeit vor, während und nach des Atombombenabwurfes auf Hiroshima. Zur Mitte des Filmes sagt einer der Überlebenden, dass sie sich in der Hölle auf Erden befinden und das beschreibt diese vergangenen 105 Minuten wirklich perfekt. Alles, was nach dem Abwurf passiert, ist einfach nur unmenschlich und erschreckend. Dieses abscheuliche Leid wirkt völlig surreal, genauso wie die apokalyptischen Sets und die riesigen schwer-verletzten Menschenmassen. In diesen Momenten übernimmt auch die schmerzhafte Musik von Godzilla-Komponist Akira Ifukube, denn Worte können dieses Leiden nicht beschreiben. Außerdem wird man von dem omnipräsenten Schmerz, den Hiroshima zeigt, vollkommen überfordert, denn obwohl man weiß, dass dies alles passiert ist, ist es kaum möglich, diese Grausamkeit zu realisieren. Ein wichtiger Film.
„One murder makes a villain, a million murders makes a hero.“
-
The docudrama bookends exploring the generational consequences of the bombings are somewhat dry and stilted, still effective and important though. But the middle section is evocative and crushing as to cement Hideo Sekigawa’s film as a towering monument to the victims of the bombing. Unfolding among hundreds of extras - many of them actual survivors - Hiroshima implores us to witness its starkly horrifying tableaus of suffering and agony, an unfathomable hell on earth churning with suffering masses and ruin stretching to the horizon. Every individual moment of loss, struggle, disbelief, survival forms another thread in its tapestry of haunting and unflinching empathy.
-
This movie opens by illustrating the effect the Hiroshima bombing had on its citizens; by this time, they were starting to learn of the effects of leukemia, and there seemed to have been a general attitude of acceptance and confidence.
And then we see a flashback.
We see every last detail of the actual bombing itself.
And it’s HARROWING.
Never before have I seen such a graphic representation of what that day must have been like. Hundreds of people, caked in ash, stumbling and staggering around trying to get to water. Babies crawling around piles of rubble, looking for their families. Countless people trapped under debris, wondering if they would ever get out. And for what?
I apologize if that…
-
Expectedly devastating. The initial bombing scene is among the most horrifying imagery I’ve ever seen put on film, it genuinely looks like hell on earth and I can guarantee you’ll never forget it. I’m sad to see that this film is incredibly under-seen as I believe that this is not only an experience with a huge amount of visceral power to behold , but also an unprecedentedly brave film with clearly huge importance that can educate and inform generations to come.
-
Life interrupted. When the history one shares is just death. A very harrowing reenactment made even less comfortable by one's awareness that many of the extras were actual survivors. It is very urgent, not always narrative certain, but the images most speak for themselves. It is so present tense it barely even feels like a movie about trauma.
-
This film should be required viewing for every schoolchild in the world.
Watched this on September 8, 2016. A second time on September 6, 2020. This has finally been released on blu-ray by Arrow Films. There is a passion and honesty in this film that I have not seen in any other.
-
Hideo Sekigawa's film Hiroshima (1953) is a straightforward and clinical look at the bombing and its aftereffects but no less harrowing or emotional. The film starts several years after the bombing, in a school classroom. The bombing is still a fresh horror, but some semblance of normal life has returned. However, many of the children are stricken with the effects of radiation sickness (or burn scars) and are ostracized as a result. Initially, doctors and specialists were not aware of the dangers and long lasting effects of radiation poisoning and were not equipped to treat it. The Japanese government was also slow in acknowledging the magnitude of the problem and citizens who tried to get help were seen as whiners…
-
An extremely powerful, multifaceted look into the humanity of those directly affected by the bombing of Hiroshima.
If the film is a bit heavy-handed at times I think it’s earned that right, considering the subject matter. The devastation isn’t sugarcoated one bit and the anger and pain is palpable.
There’s one particular shot that has stuck with me of a group of dazed, blackened school girls stumbling down the stairs outside like a horrifying writhing centipede.
Akira Ifukabe’s score is beautiful but understated - maybe one of his best.