The Oscar winner Movie Oppenheimer This Friday it finally opens in cinemas in Japan, where this story about the architect of the atomic bomb is a very sensitive and emotional subject.
The successful production hit cinema screens in July at the same time as “Barbie” in the USA and other countries and created a viral phenomenon that was dubbed “Barbenheimer” by film fans.
But while the famous puppet film premiered in Japan in August, Oppenheimer has been conspicuously absent from its cinemas for months.
No official statement was made, fueling speculation that the film was too controversial to be shown in Japan, the only country to fall victim to the bomb devised by Robert Oppenheimer.
About 140,000 people died in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki when the United States dropped atomic bombs on those cities in 1945, days before the end of World War II.
In a huge cinema in central Tokyo where Christopher Nolan’s film was shown on Friday, there was no sign of the advertising posters that one would expect for a global success.
Only a small poster advertised the film, which had a budget of $100 million but grossed almost a billion dollars at the box office.
Mixed feelings in Hiroshima.
The story of physicist Robert Oppenheimer earned rave reviews and numerous accolades, taking home the most-awarded award at the Oscars with seven statuettes, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress for Cillian Murphy.
But in Hiroshima, the Japanese city destroyed by the first atomic bomb, the film’s success sparks mixed feelings.
Kyoko Heya, president of the city’s international film festival, told AFP after the Oscars that she found Nolan’s film “very American.”
“Is this really a film that the people of Hiroshima can tolerate?” he asked.
The city has been reborn into a vibrant metropolis of 1.2 million people, but the ruins of a domed building, alongside a museum and other grim monuments, remain a stark reminder of the horror.
After much thought, Heya came to the conclusion that he wanted “a lot of people to see the film.” “I would like to see Hiroshima, Nagasaki and nuclear weapons become topics of discussion thanks to this film,” he said.
Critics in Japanese media point out that the film does not show the damage caused by the bombs.
“There could have been a lot more description and depiction of the horror of nuclear weapons,” former Hiroshima mayor and bomb survivor Takashi Hiraoka, 96, said at a special screening of the film in the city this month.
Oppenheimer The film was also shown at a preview in Nagasaki, where 80-year-old survivor Masao Tomonaga said he was impressed by the film.
“I thought the fact that the film (…) lacked images of the atomic bomb survivors was a weakness,” said this survivor, who dedicated himself to researching leukemia caused by the attacks.
“But in reality the sentences of Oppenheimer In dozens of scenes they show their shock at the reality of the atomic bomb being dropped. “That was enough for me,” he said.
SPRING: AFP.