Review of Rhapsody in August (1991) by Timothy M — 31 Jul 2010

I found the movie interesting as a cultural and historical artifact, showing how Japanese children might interrelate and how some, 46 years after the bomb, view the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in connection with the US. But as a movie, it wasn't much. There was 30-minutes worth of story stretched out to be a full-length film. The Gere character was annoying and almost silly, but maybe he came across fine to a non-American audience. On the other hand, I was generally interested in what the grandmother was doing and saying.

(I'm trying to keep out of my rating that the movie makes no effort to give a rounded view of the war or what the Japanese did in east Asia and to prisoners during the war. From the film, a viewer would think the US woke up one fine day and, for no particular reason, decided to destroy Nagasaki. Thanks, I've got that out of my system.).