Black Rain (1989)

This movie is about events after Hiroshima and how that connects with the concept of prejudice against some survivors of the bombing with some people worrying about whether prospective mates are survivors of the 'black rain' and thus could end up dying of radiation sickness. The film takes place both in 1945 and in 1950.

The family is one of those that has just evacuated Hiroshima.

Another character is on his way to work.

The explosion takes place.

The blast hits the people on the train.

The family that left sees the mushroom cloud rising.

The black rain starts falling. The black rain refers to fallout and the people afterwards are shunned. Yasuko, the girl, is in the rain and has a major problem finding a husband later because of this.

Being an older movie the special effects are not very good but still give an idea of how many people suffered immediate burns from the flash. The family itself is fleeing the advancing fire.

Yasuko five years later after a checkup.

The old guy thinks every car that passes is a tank and he attacks them.

She's taking a bath. The Japanese at that time actually cleaned themselves first outside of the tub. The purpose of the tub was to relax in hot water.

The marriage idea didn't work due to the prejudice. Even a certificate of health wasn't enough.

Yasuko is upset as is to be expected.

There is some time-jumping in the film as this is back in Hiroshima after the bomb. The way the bodies look and the way the people were walking in the film are both very realistic.

This is how the Japanese people found out they had lost the war.

Another possible groom. Which, again, doesn't work out. She's living with her aunt and uncle. The aunt becomes ill, probably from the effect of the radiation.

Yasuko gets along with the somewhat crazy guy quite well. (He ended up beating a thug who came on his motorcycle.) We also find out what happened to him that makes him react to engine noise. More die from the effects of the radiation.

A woman wants her son to marry Yasuko. He's the one scared of engine sounds.

She likes him.

Yasuko has been ill, but the doctor isn't sure it's tied in to the effects of the bomb. She finds, though, that her hair is coming out which is an effect of radiation poisoning.

The aunt dies.

Yasuko is dying.

This is a fantastic film from 1989 that shows the physical effects of the bomb on Hiroshima, and how the radiation poisoning from the bomb was still killing people years later. Also shown is the prejudice against people who survived the bomb but were thought to be polluted, I guess the word could be used, by the radiation. This is shown by how difficult it is to find a husband for Yasuko, a really pretty girl who was exposed to the black rain and no guy seems to want to marry her because of that.

The film is in black and white and concentrates on what happens to just plain average people, and how the effects of what they went through colored their lives and caused their deaths even years later.



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