Growing Old with Kurosawa and The Bomb: Japanese Aesthetic Traditions and the American Desire for an Authentic Response

Abstract

Akira Kurosawa3 is like a Venn diagram––a discursive center constructed by intersecting other issues. Conceptualized in this way, three of Kurosawa's films stand out for both their controversial subject matter and critical reception, and thus make the practice and disciplinary boundaries of cinema studies more open to criticism. Record of a Living Being (Ikimono no kiroku, 1955), Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (Yume, 1990), and Rhapsody in August (Hachigatsu no rapusodii, 1991), directly address the sensitive subject matter of the bomb. When we look closely at these films (hereafter referred to by their Japanese titles), we also find several interesting characteristics common to most other Japanese films about the bomb.