Rhapsody in August
by Akira Kurosawa
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Hisashi Igawa, Narumi Kayashima, Richard Gere, Sachiko Murase, Tomoko ÔtakaraDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Brand: Sony
Writer: Akira Kurosawa
Producer: Hisao Kurosawa
Producer: Mike Y. Inoue
Producer: Seikichi Iizumi
Producer: Toru Okuyama
Writer: Ishirô Honda
Writer: Kiyoko Murata
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Japanese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-07-01
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Rhapsody in August
Movie Review: Poetry, Japanese style...
Summary: 5 Stars
As we all know, this is one of the last works of Akira Kurosawa, the Master in movie making.
He was also known by his friends as Kurosawa-san or by those who admired him as a teacher, as Kurosawa-sensei.
One of the things one immediately notices in his movies (especially in his later period, but even in some earlier works - although filmed in Black and WHite), is the Art of image and color composition. Kurosawa was a painter in his own right, a highly talented one at that.
Every scene is a "tableau" in which the action and the dialogues performed by the actors is just an additional element to the poetry Kurosawa intended to create for his movies.
So it is that even here in "Rhapsody in August", the theme of two families of the same common ancestry, but living in two totally different countries with almost completely different values, coming in touch with each other, forms a case study about conflicts and commonalities among two worlds.
We have seen many stories like these, but never so vividly told as here.
But this is not just another banal tale. The unfolding of the story is so masterful that it becomes a dance, a poetic dance.
What one also notices, is that our world and Kurosawa shown worlds are not so different as one may think. There is more to bind us, as human beings, than meets the eye.
Every time I watch a Kurosawa movie, I am in awe and wonder at how much life experience and passion this man did put into his work.
This is the true gift to all of us, as mankind.
Just now am I beginning to understand the full scope of Akira Kurosawa's work load. His legacy to us is hidden in each and everyone of his movies.
It is up to us to decipher them appropriately. This is the key, the true key, in order to fully understand the man Kurosawa.
Thank you Kurosawa-sensei.
I would say that this is a must have.
Summary of Rhapsody in August
Academy AwardÂ(r) winner* Akira Kurosawa (The Seven Samurai) delivers 'the most intimate drama of his career (Los Angeles Times), a stunning epic that is as visually tantalizing as it is emotionally touching. Set in the gorgeous countryside surrounding Nagasaki and starring Sachiko Murase, Hidetaka Yoshioka and Golden GlobeÂ(r) winner Richard Gere, this endearing saga follows a Japanese family once torn apart by war and now facing personal demons brought on by contact with American cousins lost long ago. Sachiko Murase is stunning as the aging matriarchof a Nagasaki family that has long lived with a legacy of horror brought on by WWII. But when an older brother she never knew she had resurfacesalong with his Japanese-American descendantsshe must come to terms with her most deeply held feelings about America and her haunted past. *1989: Honorary AwardThe 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 40 years, 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. --Marshall Fine
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