The winner of the Oscar for best picture in 2024, “Oppenheimer”, was finally released on Friday, March 29 in Japan, where its subject – the man who masterminded the creation of the atomic bomb – is a very sensitive and emotional matter.
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The American blockbuster 'Oppenheimer' screened in the United States and many other countries in July, at the same time as “Barbie,” inspiring a viral phenomenon dubbed “Barbenheimer” by moviegoers.
But while “Barbie” premiered in Japan in August“Oppenheimer” was conspicuously absent from theaters for months.
No official explanation was offered at the time, fueling speculation that the film was too controversial to be shown in Japan, the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack in wartime.
About 140,000 people died in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki when the United States dropped atomic bombs on cities in August 1945, days before the end of World War II.
Read alsoThe story behind the atomic bombs that hit Hiroshima and NagasakiIn a large theater in downtown Tokyo where “Oppenheimer” was being shown on Friday, there was none of the prominent promotional material one might expect from a global megahit.
Instead, only a small billboard advertised the film, which was shot with a budget of 100 million dollars and raised almost 1,000 million at the box office around the world.
“It's a long film, three hours, but I've watched it carefully, because it's very shocking,” Masayuki Hayashi, 51, told AFP.
Japanese distributors may have preferred to avoid a summer release, close to the anniversary of the attacks, said Tatsuhisa Yue, 65. But “It would have been unthinkable for a film describing how the weapon was developed not to be screened here.“, he claimed.
“The movie came late, but I think it was good that it was finally released in Japan.”
Focused on the United States
The film tells the story of the American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimerwho oversaw the invention of the bomb.
It received very favorable reviews and was the most awarded film in the Oscar of 2024, with seven prizesincluding best director for Christopher Nolan and best actor for its protagonist, Cillian Murphy.
But in Hiroshima, the city devastated by the first nuclear bomb, the biopic's success at the Oscars sparked mixed reactions.
Kyoko Heya, president of the city's international film festival, told AFP after the awards ceremony that she found Nolan's film “very American-centric.”
“Is this really a film that the people of Hiroshima can bear to see?” asked the president of the Hiroshima International Film Festival.
Currently, the city is a thriving metropolis of 1.2 million inhabitantsbut the ruins of a domed building still stand as a stark reminder of the horrors of the attack, along with a museum and other somber memorials.
Heya indicated that, after much reflection, he now wants “many people to see the film.”
“I would be happy if Hiroshima, Nagasaki and atomic weapons became a topic of debate thanks to this film,” he said.
Last year, viral “Barbenheimer” memes sparked online anger in Japan, where media outlets have highlighted criticism that the film fails to show the damage caused by the bombs.
“There could have been much more description and representation of the horror of atomic weapons“said bomb survivor and former Hiroshima mayor Takashi Hiraoka, 96, at a special screening in the city earlier this month.
“Oppenheimer” also had a preview screening in Nagasaki, where survivor Masao Tomonaga, 80, said he was impressed by the film.
“I thought the film's absence of images of atomic bomb survivors was a weak point,” said Tomonaga, who was two years old when the second bomb fell and later became a professor studying leukemia caused by the attacks.
“But in fact, Oppenheimer's lines in dozens of scenes showed his shock at the reality of the atomic bombing. That was enough for me.”
By News Wires and AFP
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