READ THIS FIRST: This is a 12-inch Diameter Laserdisc, which is NOT the same as DVD and cannot be played on a DVD player!

Laserdisc Title: "RHAPSODY IN AUGUST"
Edition: Fullscreen Edition (Single Disc)
Directed By: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Sachiko Murase, Hisashi Igawa, Richard Gere
Special Features: ---In Japanese With Yellow English Subtitles---
Production / Year: 1991 Shociku Co., Ltd.
Running Time: 131 Minutes / Color
Audio Format: Digital Sound, Dolby Surround, Stereo, CX Encoded
Video Format: NTSC, CLV (Extended Play)
Miscellaneous Features: Rated PG
Distributed By: Image Entertainment
Catalog / Spine Number: ID2778OR

Cosmetic Condition:
Disc (s): Good - Some light to very minor hairline surface swirls or light fingerprint marks (Disc Manufactured in Japan)
Jacket: Excellent - Normal shelf wear, few creases, slightly worn-out corners or edges but no signs of spines splitting

Synopsis:
The final film released in the U.S. by Japanese master Akira Kurosawa looks at the atomic blast at Nagasaki from a distance of more than 40years, through the eyes of a woman who survived it--and the grandchildren who are spending the summer with her. Though she tries not to think about it, the memory of the bombing is with her every day, in the family she lost and the scars she still carries. But the grandchildren insist on seeing the memorial, which brings it home to her once again--and to us. Though sometimes slow going (and what is Richard Gere doing in this movie, as her Amer-Asian nephew?), Rhapsody in August is a story about family and about living in the present while never being allowed to forget the past. The story is an inter-generational one, focused on an aging grandmother, Kane, who hosts her grandchildren in her rural home in Nagasaki while their parents visit relatives in Hawaii. Kane is a hibakusha, one who experienced the dropping of the atomic bomb during WWII, during which her husband was killed. For Kane, the atomic bomb is a very real thing, while for her grandchildren it is a distant sob-story they were forced to memorize at school. Richard Gere makes an awkward appearance as Kane's half-American grandson from Hawaii, speaking stilted Japanese, but doing his best to fit into the overall story. Much of the controversy on this film is about Kurosawa's point of view of Japan as a victimized nation of the US war crime of dropping the atomic bomb, a point of view that is very much prevalent in Japan even today. To the Japanese, the story of Nagasaki is very much that of regular civilians like Kane, who were not part of the war, who were not off killing and maiming in China or doing anything else the US politicians use to justify the bomb, but who suffered the brunt of the US attack in spite of their innocence. Much of the story rings true in this sense. When I visited the Nagasaki Peace Park, and saw the monuments donated by the nations of the world, I too looked for the US monument and was surprised not to find one. Seeing this scene played out on film hit close to home, and I realized that must be the general reaction to everyone who visits the park.

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