SHOCHIKU presents
A film by AKIRA KUROSAWA
RHAPSODY IN AUGUST
A Kurosawa Production
Presented by Feature Film Enterprise 2
Executive Producer: Toru Okuyama
Producer: Hisao Kurosawa
From the novel by Kiyoko Murata
Associate Director: Ishiro Honda
Associate Producers: Mike Y. Inoue, Seikichi lizumi
Photography: Takao Saito, Masaharu Ueda
Art Direction: Yoshiro Muraki Lighting: Takeji Sano
Recording: Kenichi Benitani Costumes: Kazuko Kurosawa
Music: From Schubert and Vivaldi and by Shinichiro Ikebi
With
Sachiko Murase
Hidetaka Yoshioka - Tomoko Ontakara Mie Suzuki - Mitsunori Isaki
Hisashi Igawa - Toshie Negeshi Choichiro Kawarasaki - Namuri Kayashima
and Richard Gere
Written and Directed by Akira Kurosawa
It was kind of a funny summer.
During vacation, nothing but strange things seemed to happen.
And the boy a rose did see
Give it up! That organ! It gets worse as you try to fix it.
I will absolutely fix it.
I got into college.
Finally managed to get out of the examination hell.
Made up my mind.
Absolutely no studying during this summer vacation.
I've got plenty of time to fix this organ, absolutely...
Here we go again with Tateo's "absolutely." You said it three times already.
A letter from Hawaii.
Pictures are enclosed.
Let's see.
"I hasten to inform you that we were met...
"by the family of Suzujiro's son at Honolulu Airport."
Dad has a lei.
"We knew that Suzujiro's deceased wife was an American...
"but were somewhat surprised to find...
"that all the family members were 100 percent Americans."
Terrific!
This is a Cadillac limousine!
His son Clark and wife, Natalie...
and their children Michael and Emily.
This Michael and Emily look like they are just about our age.
And Emily, she's a very beautiful girl.
- Tateo, are you falling for her? - Stupid!
"But all of them speak broken Japanese, which set our minds at ease."
I understand how they felt. Father is rather poor with English.
"After a comfortable drive of about 20 minutes...
"we arrived at Suzujiro's residence.
"Immediately we met Suzujiro, who was sick in bed."
Is he Grandma's elder brother?
"Suzujiro looked better than we had anticipated.
"He was so pleased that he held our hands tightly...
"and did not want to let go for quite some time.
"But he was very disappointed that Grandma did not come.
"He repeatedly asked us what was wrong with her...
"and we didn't know how to answer him.
"Since Grandma had said no...
"we came to see Suzujiro on her behalf...
"which was the wrong thing to do.
"We are her blood relatives...
"but after all, we are actually strangers as far as Suzujiro is concerned.
"The person he really wanted to see was the Ione survivor...
"his sister, Grandma.
"We can't do her job.
"Suzujiro, who had kept his eyes closed for a while...
"opened them, and said:
"'Grandma might as well come to see him...
"'with her grandchildren during summer vacation.'
"He said, 'We would feel easier that way.'
"It's a good idea, please do what he said."
- Going to... - To Hawaii.
"I also think it's a good idea.
"Grandma, please think it over again.
"A trip to Hawaii is not too different...
"from a trip between Nagasaki and Tokyo, where our home is."
That's right!
"I also beg your favor.
"Please come to Hawaii with your four grandchildren...
"and meet Suzujiro.
"With hasty regards, Tadao."
Grandma, it's a very good idea! You should go, absolutely.
- Everybody to Hawaii! - Wonderful!
- It will be a great holiday! - Grandma, let's go! Let's go, please!
Wait! My mother also wrote...
"Dear Grandma, Suzujiro told us to stay at his home.
"No sense staying at a hotel.
"We decided to take advantage of his hospitality.
"It is such a big, magnificent residence.
"We are just loafing around.
"The garden is beautiful, and nothing is better than the ocean-side view.
"Grandma, please do come! Yoshie."
Look! It's a gorgeous home!
It looks just like a hotel!
Here's another letter. It's from Clark, Suzujiro's son.
It's written in katakana.
Here, can you see it?
"Dear Aunt...
"I am the son...
"of your eldest brother...
"Suzujiro Haruno.
"Ever since my father...
"came from Japan...
"to Hawaii in 1920...
"he lived with the pineapples...
"and he will soon die as an American...
"leaving me this vast farm.
"He tells me that he wishes to see you...
"his younger sister, before he dies.
"Please come and see my father.
"Sincerely yours, Clark."
It's touching!
It sure is.
Say, Grandma, let's go to Hawaii.
You heard what the letter said. It wouldn't be nice for you not to go.
But still, this is all so strange.
It could be some kind of mistake.
Cut it out now! Sure, if Grandma was a millionaire...
it's possible it could be a swindler claiming to be your brother.
But I bet there is no one fool enough...
to bother lying about being a brother of poor Grandma.
In the first place, these people are rich!
Suzujiro Haruno.
Surely, my maiden name is Haruno...
but I can't remember the name Suzujiro.
After all, I was born in a poor family that was blessed only with children.
I had more than ten brothers and sisters.
More than ten?
Besides that, this man is an American, isn't he?
- How could he be my big brother? - It was written in the letter.
He went to Hawaii as an immigrant and became naturalized.
Although he has American citizenship...
Grandma's brother is still Grandma's brother.
This guy Suzujiro must be Grandma's elder brother.
Right. Otherwise, what would be the reason for him trying to find you?
I know...
what you mean, but...
Guess it's about the right time to eat some kidney beans.
Real stubborn. That's for sure.
"Who needs them!" There's no television.
And that refrigerator, guess how much I had to beg her to buy it?
She still won't go for a washing machine.
"Washing can be done without a thing like that," she says.
A stone head, with a reed screen over it.
It's delicious, really delicious!
Eating with all of you makes the food extra tasty.
Grandma.
Let my sister cook the meals starting tomorrow.
I'm sure it will be good for everybody.
And it will be much easier on you, too, Grandma.
Don't worry about me.
To put it simply...
Grandma's cooking is driving us to despair.
In other words, your cooking just doesn't agree with our tastes.
I mean, as a matter of fact, it's just plain lousy.
I'm sorry, Grandma, but...
this pumpkin and kidney beans, and pumpkin and chicken...
it's so boiled down with soy sauce that we can't even tell which piece is which.
- It is so black, and pulpy, and salty... - Tateo!
I think Grandma's cooking is lousy because of her false teeth.
As long as everything is soft, it's all right with her.
- But we don't have false teeth. - Shinjiro!
Shinjiro, you sure are great! You did real well.
That's true. Because of you...
I can sit at the table starting tomorrow with a sense of relief.
You mean eating is your only concern?
But you can't get away that easy. Tomorrow, we go shopping in Nagasaki.
- And you're coming, too, Shinjiro. - Count me out.
I have the big project to convince Grandma to take us all to Hawaii with her.
Yeah! That's the grand theme for this summer vacation!
We shall all go to Hawaii! Absolutely! Let's all hold out!
Fate is knocking at the door.
Under this beautiful town of Nagasaki...
there is another Nagasaki that vanished with one atomic bomb.
Didn't Grandpa die in the Nagasaki atom bombing?
- Yes. - How come Grandma was safe?
She was at the house, behind the mountain, 10 kilometers away from the blast center.
But she told me that her hair was a result of the atom bomb.
That's because Grandma came to Nagasaki on that day, looking for Grandpa.
The school where Grandpa was teaching was close to the blast center.
And did she find Grandpa?
The school building was crushed flat and burned, and full of charred bodies.
It was impossible to identify which one of them was Grandpa.
Do you want to go to the school?
You know, Grandma was also a teacher at this school.
She quit when she married Grandpa.
She sure was lucky, wasn't she?
I don't know about that.
When Grandpa died, our father was still a baby...
and Grandma was carrying Minako's mother in her belly.
Being left alone...
I bet it must have been very hard on Grandma.
Still...
even though no one ever found Grandpa...
he's here, I'm sure.
That day, we went around the town of Nagasaki...
because we wanted to know a lot more about the atomic bomb.
Even though the atomic bomb was dropped, this survived?
No, it was rebuilt.
But there are some things left just as they were at that time.
The angels all look as if they are crying.
The atomic bomb blasted right above here.
Portugal.
These are monuments...
sent from different countries of the world.
Czechoslovakia.
Italy.
Poland.
Bulgaria.
The Soviet Union.
China.
Brazil.
Cuba.
Holland.
I can't find the one from America.
What do you expect? America is the one that dropped the atomic bomb.
"I was so very thirsty.
"Water, water." All died uttering that word.
But nowadays, for most of the people...
the atomic bomb is something that happened once upon a time.
People are apt to forget...
even a dreadful event like that...
as the years pass by.
Can we leave it like that?
I really pity Grandpa and Grandma.
Want some ice cream?
Grandma.
You're late!
What have you been doing?
It's all right, now, all right.
What's the matter now?
I think Grandma would like it not too spicy.
May I start eating?
I'm really embarrassed. Grandma puts her hands together to worship what I cooked.
- And it was really delicious. - That's true!
We're all counting on you from now on.
Look at this.
What is this?
To convince her to agree to go to Hawaii, I talked about Suzujiro today.
Then Grandma started to remember the names of her brothers.
"Tetsutaro.
"Dozaburo.
"Jushiro.
"Shogoro.
"Kuginosuke.
"Natakichi.
"Kuwata.
"Suzukichi.
"Nabe.
"Kane. Kyoko."
These names have the Chinese symbol for metal.
Grandma's father, our great-grandfather, seems to have been a real weirdo.
"Kane." So this is our Grandma, right?
- Eleven! - Eleven?
And she says there must have been two or three more, but she can't remember them.
And Suzujiro is among the ones she can't remember?
But you know, Tetsutaro, Dozaburo, there, is number two.
I think the brother between those two is Suzujiro.
I'm pretty sure of it. First, the Chinese character for Suzu has the symbol for metal.
Even if she could remember, Grandma won't go to Hawaii. I'm sure of it.
Why's that?
Grandma doesn't like America, and it's only natural.
After all, Grandpa was killed by the atomic bomb.
I think he's right.
You see, none of us and none of our parents know about war.
As for the atomic bomb...
Sure, we've all heard about it.
But it meant nothing more than a sort of little scary fairy tale.
We never really understood the feelings of the people...
who had the atom bomb dropped over their heads. We never stopped to think.
Look at my mother.
Just by being told that there's a rich relative in Hawaii, she got excited.
Isn't it disgusting? My father's no different.
He didn't even spend time with Grandma. He took off for Hawaii in a hurry.
Big Sis!
Here, eat these.
I'm really pleased...
that you are so concerned about me.
I'm very grateful.
But then, it was a long time ago when I felt bitter about America.
It's been more than 45 years since Grandpa died.
Now, I don't particularly like...
or dislike America.
It's all because of war.
War is to blame.
During the war many Japanese died...
and many Americans also died.
Listen...
because of a man called Suzujiro or whatever...
I don't think it's right for you to talk badly about your parents.
I was the one who sort of drove them to go off to Hawaii...
for my own joy of having the four of you here, all to myself, while they're gone.
Anyway, I want all of you to stay here during summer vacation.
The rich man in Hawaii means nothing to me.
I'm just grateful to be able to live with you like this...
because of him.
Now, go on, eat.
Grandma's watermelon is real tasty.
Thank you!
Grandpa used to play this so often...
I know I got old...
and so did this organ.
I'll fix it. I sure will. Absolutely.
You're saying "absolutely" again.
There were so many of them.
But they all died.
All of them died because of the atomic bomb?
No. Some of them died because of that, but there were some who died young...
and some who died in places far away.
This one, Natakichi...
he was my seventh or eighth brother, I think.
He left home and became a shoemaker in Nagasaki.
After five years of apprenticeship...
just as he was ready to open his own shop...
he made a gross mistake.
What did he do?
Big Bro' Natakichi...
eloped with the shoemaker's wife.
Hey, why don't you go to bed?
I'm not sleepy.
Then what happened to Natakichi?
My father was furious...
and refused to let him come back home.
So Natakichi was obliged to build a small hut...
far up in the mountain behind here...
and make a scanty living by making shoes there.
They lived in a place...
where two charred cedar trees...
that had been struck by lightning...
stood along the path they used in their escape.
But why live in a place like that?
While they were running away...
the woman who was holding Natakichi's hand...
saw those two trees...
and said they looked like...
they had committed a double suicide.
And that's why they built a hut at that place.
- A real weird story. - It makes me feel eerie.
I'm going to bed.
Me, too. I'm totally bushed today.
Good night.
- Tomorrow, let's all go there and see. - Go where? See what?
Those two trees that committed double suicide by being struck by lightning.
Don't be stupid! That happened a long time ago.
Those trees can't still be there.
I can't see them. Grandma told me they were still here, though.
Burnt trees keep standing forever because they won't rot.
There they are! That's it! Let's go and see.
Why don't we just look from where we are?
I don't know why, but I'm a little scared.
"Those two cedar trees look as if they have committed double suicide."
"We are two elopers.
"Why not live next to them?"
What are you doing?
Sorry! I just got carried away because of the mood.
Stupid! I'm going back!
Wait a minute! Hey, wait a minute!
What's wrong?
Something's weird. An old lady from somewhere came to visit Grandma.
So what? What's so weird about that?
But you see, they just sit face to face. That's it.
They don't say a word, for all this time.
And it's been one hour already.
Grandma, see if this letter is all right to send to Hawaii.
"Hello there. Grandma is now inclined to go to Hawaii."
This is just in diplomatic language.
After all, we have to consider their feelings, too.
"But before that, she says she wants to make sure about Suzujiro.
"Even with the picture you sent, she doesn't remember...
"due to his age, and his looks after being ill.
"If you have a picture taken when Suzujiro was young...
"please send it as soon as possible.
"And ask Suzujiro to try and recall the names of his brothers.
"If he recalls the names of Tetsutaro, Dozaburo and Jushiro...
"those names would match Grandma's memory.
"And it would mean that Suzujiro is definitely the elder brother of Grandma.
"In haste, respectfully..."
That's a great idea. Tateo, you are something!
This is all right, isn't it?
- Thank you for all your trouble. - Then I'll send it right away tomorrow.
But it's possible that letter will cross father on the way.
He's got a job, and it's about time for him to be coming back.
No, he won't be coming back.
There's the pineapple farm, even if he gets fired.
That old lady who came to visit you today, what did she come here for?
She came to chat with me.
But you didn't talk at all.
Both of you just sat there saying nothing.
And then that old lady bowed to you and left without saying a word.
There are things we don't need words to understand.
Her husband also died...
in Nagasaki, just like Grandpa.
That's why she comes here now and then...
sits down for a while without saying a word, and leaves without saying a word.
There are people who are silent...
while they are talking.
This one, Suzukichi...
the youngest brother.
He was a little weak in the head.
Ever since he lost all of his hair from the atomic bomb...
he shut himself up in a room and stayed there.
But on hot summer days...
it must have been insufferable for him.
He used to slip out when the moon came up, and sneak away for a swim...
in the basin of a waterfall deep in the mountains. That's right, yes.
That waterfall is a nice one. You should go there sometime.
And then, that boy, what was he doing every day in the room?
- He just kept on drawing pictures. - What kind of pictures?
For some strange reason, only pictures of eyes.
- Eyes? - Eyes like this.
As long as there was paper...
he just drew eyes, never getting tired of it.
He's spooky!
I bet those were eyes seen through an obsession.
He loathed the idea of being seen with his hairless head.
And he must have been obsessed by the eyes of people.
It must be those eyes.
This kind of drawing?
That's it! That's exactly it.
Those are exactly the same pictures.
Come to think of it...
you sure do look like Suzukichi.
You are like two peas in a pod.
That's really something!
- Let's sleep with this door open tonight. - Why?
I don't know why, but I'm scared.
When I shut my eyes, the picture of those eyes glares at me.
Cut it out! Now you're going to make me have a nightmare!
Coward!
Grandma's story, I wonder if it's true?
I can't believe that Suzukichi, who was a little weak in the head...
came here to swim at night.
That just proves he was weak in the head.
Isn't it rather cold here?
Grandma says there's a water imp living in the basin of the waterfall.
Stop it! Don't start a story like that.
Come on, let's eat our lunch.
By the way, what will you do if you go to Hawaii?
First of all, eat a pineapple.
You've sure got a limited imagination.
Maybe it's only natural, since you're the reincarnation of Suzukichi.
You are his double, including being weak in the head.
He was only joking.
Tateo, what do you want to do?
What else is there? He'll devote himself to flirting with Clark's daughter.
Will you propose to her?
Don't be stupid! Emily is one of our relatives.
She's related by blood to Grandma. Marrying her is out of the question.
You don't even know a thing like that?
According to Mendel's laws, there's a high probability...
for the offspring of a consanguineous marriage to be recessive.
In terms of eugenics, absolutely.
The eyes of the snake. The eyes that Suzukichi drew. See that?
Those eyes are...
Grandma is there, too. What are they doing?
They are chanting Buddhist sutras.
Now and then, old ladies get together and hold a religious service...
for the souls of the departed.
That's why there's no Buddhist altar at home.
It's already August.
The day of the atomic bomb is coming.
August 9.
Grandpa's death day.
I see there are other people who have the same kind of idea as Grandma.
There are quite a few old people like that around here. Suzukichi was one of them.
Although the point where the atom bomb was dropped is quite far from here.
Snake eyes?
The eyes on Suzukichi's drawing...
are not snake eyes.
They are the eyes of the flash.
That's right. Around here...
on that day, when we heard the air raid siren...
Suzukichi and me were looking...
towards Nagasaki over that mountain. Both of us standing right here.
Suddenly, the sky split in half and glared at us.
A big eye...
peeped through the crack.
The big eye...
glared fiercely...
at both of us.
We just looked at the sky like we were frozen.
With a tremendously big sound...
the ground started shaking.
Suzukichi was terrified. He didn't move.
Staring...
with wide eyes at the sky.
After that, he was possessed by the eye.
He could see nothing else.
And he kept drawing that picture.
I can't forget that eye either.
No other eyes are as frightful as that eye.