TOKIO.- The Oscar winner film Oppenheimer will finally be released this Friday in theaters japan, where this story about the architect of the atomic bomb is a very sensitive and emotional issue.
The successful production reached the big screens of USA and other passes in July at the same time as Barbie, causing a viral phenomenon dubbed Barbenheimer by movie fans. But while the famous doll movie opens in Japan in August, Oppenheimer has been conspicuously absent from its theaters for months.
No official explanation was offered, fueling speculation that the film was too controversial to be shown in Japan, the only country victim of the Robert Oppenheimer-conceived bomb.
Some 140,000 people died in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki when the United States dropped atomic bombs on these cities in 1945, days before the end of World War II.
In a huge cinema in downtown Tokyo where Christopher Nolan’s film was being screened on Friday, there was no trace of the promotional posters one expects for a global success.
Only a small poster advertised the film, which had a budget of 100 million dollars, but grossed almost a billion at the box office.
Sensations in Hiroshima
The story of the physicist Robert Oppenheimer garnered rave reviews and a multitude of awards, being the most awarded at the Oscars with seven statuettes, including best film, best director and best actor for Cillian Murphy.
But in Hiroshima, the Japanese city devastated by the first nuclear bomb, the film’s success generates mixed feelings.
Kyoko Heya, president of the city’s international film festival, told AFP after the Oscar ceremony that she found Nolan’s film very American-Central. “Is this really a movie that the people of Hiroshima can endure?” she asked herself.
The city has been reborn into a vibrant metropolis of 1.2 million people, but the ruins of a domed building remain standing as a stark reminder of the horror, alongside a museum and other somber memorials.
After much reflection, Heya came to the conclusion that he wants a lot of people to see the film. “I would like to see Hiroshima, Nagasaki and atomic weapons become topics of discussion thanks to this film,” she said.
In the Japanese media, critics highlight that the film does not show the damage caused by those bombs.
“There could have been a lot more description and representation of the horror of atomic weapons,” former Hiroshima mayor and bomb survivor Takashi Hiraoka, 96, said at a special screening of the film in the city this month.
Oppenheimer It was also shown at a preview in Nagasaki, where survivor Masao Tomonaga, 80, said he was impressed by the film.
“I thought the fact that the film lacked (…) images of the survivors of the atomic bomb was a weakness,” said this survivor, who dedicated himself to studying leukemia caused by the attacks.
“But in reality, Oppenheimer’s lines in dozens of scenes show his shock at the reality of the atomic bombing. That was enough for me,” he said.
FUENTE: AFP
