Shot in washed out black and white Imamura’s film is a blend of Rossellini’s war trilogy neo-realism and Ozu’s family drama
Imamura, as one of the great masters of framing and mise-en-scene, for the scenes of the atomic fallout and the debris and rubble cluttering the frame- I wish he’d gone even heavier here with it
It’s genuinely horrifying, sobering—a depressing historical film
A couple of great shots (though again nothing like his masterpieces in the mid-60’s), a column of a house in the center of the frame as a focal point, a scene amidst bamboo trees with two directing framing a characters face- quite beautiful
Like Ozu with mise-en-scene—pots in the foreground
Narratively it’s a town’s story before they decide to focus on one family, covers PTSD
Many extras and detailed set piece work
The bomb is called “the flash”
Ozu-like family drama- marriage and manners, responsibility to aunt and uncle and family
A great shot of a clock in the top-right front of the frame showcasing Imamura’s talent for depth of field work
Apparently Imamura was quite a dictator on set—he forbade actors from leaving because he wanted them in the correct mindset
The writing isn’t amazing—and we get an inconsistent narrator dropping in and out
The mise-en-scene work is there—but just not amongst Imamura’s best work
[…] Black Rain – Imamura […]