Beyond "Oppenheimer": An Alternative Watchlist

by Cláudio Alves

HANAGATAMI (2017) Nobuhiko Obayashi

On August 6th, 1945, the atomic bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, hit the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On August 9th, a second device, Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki. Between those immediately killed in the American attack and the thousands who would perish in the subsequent months, 129,000-226,000 lives were lost, most civilian. Japan had been effectively defeated before the nuclear assault, but the nation's surrender to Allied Forces came on August 15th. According to historians over the decades and high-ranking military of the time, the US needn't have perpetrated such horrors.

And yet, for some, the idea of the bombings as a necessary evil persists. Considering this, one shouldn't be shocked that some viewers came out of Christopher Nolan's latest, grumbling it hadn't done enough to question the narrative. A common complaint is that Oppenheimer doesn't show the effects of the bombings, looking away like its titular character when confronted by such images. But would those images have fit the picture's intentions? Isn't the inability to consider consequences beyond abstraction one of the narrative's central tenets? 

As one marks these days of remembrance, it may be more productive to look beyond Oppenheimer and consider Japan's perspective. Perhaps, it's not that Nolan pulled his punches, but that they weren't his to throw…

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1961 Flashback: Best International Film

by Cláudio Alves

Did you know that Juan Carlos Ojano hosts one of the best film podcasts around? The One-Inch Barrier started last year, examining the Best International Film race, going backward in time. As its penultima season is drawing to an end, I was honored enough to return for my third stint as a guest.

The subject, this time, was Ingmar Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly, which won the Oscar in 1961, beating Denmark's Harry and the Butler, Japan's Immortal Love, Mexico's The Important Man, and Spain's Plácido. Though the Swedish flick about God's silence and Harriet Andersson's general awesomeness isn't an especially joyous piece, this was a fun, thoroughly entertaining conversation. Topics ranged from faith to class warfare, from ironic movie titles to Toshiro Mifune's hotness. There was even time to throw shade at some 2021 Oscar contenders, though I refuse to name the mediocrity in question. Take a listen:

What do you think of this Oscar lineup? Are you similarly drawn to the bleak conclusions of Through a Glass Darkly, or do you have another favorite from '61?

Toshiro Mifune @ 100: Red Beard

Our Toshiro Mifune centennial tribute has come to its final day. Here's Cláudio Alves...

Throughout his career Toshiro Mifune worked with some of the best Japanese directors ever, becoming the face of that country's cinema in the aftermath of World War II. He gave great support to Mizoguchi's leading ladies, provided emotional intensity to Naruse's deepfelt dramas, was perfect in Kobayashi's Samurai Rebellion and utterly iconic in many a Hiroshi Inagaki production. Still, his collaborations with Akira Kurosawa remain the most important. From 1948 to 1965, they made 16 films together, ranging from crime thrillers to action spectacles, from melodrama to historical epics, and the great majority of them are either considered classics or should be.

While I find High and Low to be their best film and Throne of Blood to feature Mifune's greatest performance, when it came time to choose, I knew there was no other option than to write about Red Beard. Released in 1965, it was the last film the Emperor and the Wolf ever did together. It's also an absolute masterpiece that deserves much more love than it usually gets... 

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Beauty Break: Toshiro Mifune Centennial

by Nathaniel R

100 years ago on this very day Japan's most famous movie star Toshiro Mifune was born (in Qingdao, China, then Japanese occupied). He was "discovered" by accident, when friends entered him into a 'New Faces' competition. Word travelled all the way to Akira Kurosawa, that there was a young actor he had to see. Kurosawa was, in his own words, "transfixed" and the rest -- 16 films of a classic collaboration -- is history. For our Mifune Centennial celebration thus far we've covered Stray Dog, The Hidden Fortress, and Yojimbo but herewith a beauty break to bask in the photographic glory of this iconic masculine star...

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Toshiro Mifune @ 100: Yojimbo

Team Experience is celebrating the Centennial of Japan's great movie star Toshiro Mifune for the next couple of nights. Here's Eric Blume...

When the Akira Kurosawa film Yojimbo was released in 1961, he and Toshiro Mifune already had collaborated on over a dozen films, and this collaboration is widely considered one of their greatest.  It essentially birthed the character of The Man With No Name, was remade three years later by Hollywood as A Fistful of Dollars with Clint Eastwood, and has had an enduring influence on films for almost sixty years...

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