Undescribable Perfection

Fantastic!

A different way of telling a story

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Sometimes there are events almost too tragic to capture on film. Two nuclear bombs were dropped onto Japanese cities, and it was two too many. Barefoot Gen is almost completely removed from the background of the war, the politics surrounding the surrender, the mounting firebombing of the surrounding cities. While some might point to this as a weakness, I see it as a strength. There is no need for a film like this to entangle itself into that debate which turns human lives into statistics and percentages. It depicts the innocent civilians who were far away from this process, and who had to bear the shocking tragedy instead. Keiji Nakazawa knows the material well. He too lost his family in the bombings of Hiroshima, and first detailed his experiences in the manga series that would spawn several movie adaptations including this one. In this little animated film he has found perhaps the only suitable medium that could even begin to visualise the horrors of the nuclear bombings. There were live-action films too, but it is tremendously difficult to handle not only the calibre of special effects that would fully capture the effects of the radiation, but also to direct real actors (never mind a little boy) into reacting to such a delicate issue. Barefoot Gen initially tricks you with its animation. Nakaoka and his brother bounce around with the freedom of characters drawn on the page, which accentuates their rounded cheeks and ears, their big saucer- eyes, the way their eyebrows snake like caterpillars to help emote. When they quarrel and chase each other for the last piece of food in the house, the walls close in and warp and move with them; a classical technique that has been used many times before to make characters seem faster than they really are. It belongs in an action sequence, but what Nakazawa is really doing here is representing the struggle from the perspective of little boys. They fight and argue, making a game out of hunger, while the world crumbles around them, because that is what children their age do. They see grown men fighting over a measly bowl of soup, and register this as absurd; not because of how wretched the situation has become, but because only a nice juicy fish would be worth fighting for. But they are also inquisitive and resourceful as boys tend to be - they ponder on whether worms could be caught and eaten, and bravely offer their own bodies for physical punishment if only to feed their heavily pregnant mother.Nakaoka and Shinji collect their meagre rations for the day and wheel them home, although it is barely worth a second sniff. The gravity of the situation is never completely lose on them, but they sing songs about going off to war all the same, and march down the street as if it was simply another chore to complete (and playtime afterwards). "Banzai, banzai!" they cry. And then later Nakaoka last lost it all, but still maintains that streak of optimism and boyish cheer. They are little triumphs made tragic by the inevitability of blow-back; a secret horde of rice (that is treated like hidden treasure), successfully dragging a soldier to the medical tents (only to have him declared dead immediately), and in a pivotal moment, returning home with cartons of milk only to find it is all too late. Nakazawa plays the continual optimism and pluckiness of Nakaoka against the grim plot, and the juxtaposition is at first grating, but then takes on an increasingly morose tone. He can't help but react in the only way he knows, and we understand that a six year old boy should never have to face these circumstances. The centrepiece of the film is the sequence leading up to and including the detonation of Little Boy. How could a single plane, something so innocuous even the residents are not hurried to rush to their shelters, cause so much destruction? Nakazawa builds up the fatal moment with the heavy beat of the bass drum, but it is scarcely needed, because we all recognise and know what is about to happen. It is the dreadful ringing and silence following that is the more frightening, the way the entire city is frozen in time for a split second, and how the flash of the bomb strips the frame of colour. The animations suspends the victims in the air, and strips away their very skin and flesh. In this way the film is literally ripping apart the very essence of anime, pulling apart the cleanly drawn lines, the simple facial features, the saucer-eyes and wide-open mouths. Live-action would never dare try to touch such an atrocity. Animation makes a haunting and sad attempt.

It's rare for me to cry, feel heartbreak or to feel genuine emotion toward an anime film let alone find a dram in the anime category. This film is one of the best but unfortunately forgotten anime gems, but truest me once you see the film you'll never forget it.One of the things I love about this film is it's documentary style, the cinematography and presentation. even though some aspects of the animation mainly in some gestures of the human characters seem a little dated it doesn't delude anything and after a while you do get use to it. But beside that the animation style I feel is great, from the way the humans are animated but most of all it's the backgrounds. The Detals of the buildings, vehicles, you name it it's there.I'll admit something to you this film has one of the most horrifying, upsetting and unnerving scenes I've ever see in animation, when we see in graphic detail the bombing and all of the people it is destroying in it's wake. As well as the aftermath it left from people that are burned badly with flesh hanging in places looking like zombies (that wasn't a joke, it's a true fact) walking dying a slow death to the charred burned ruins of a city that was once flourishing and beautiful.The facts of the history presented in the narration also make the emotional weight heavier and made me feel sicker because it's true. As my dad said more stupid things happen in war than smart things, when someone tells someone to go one way, even though logically they should go another.The music is also good it has an end theme song that is one of the most beautiful if saddest songs I've ever heard. Other than that the true strength of the film is in it's character drama. Gen and his family are people that I can actually love, may'be due to the sense of familiarity they carry. Gen is a character that actually reminds me a little of myself when I was his age, whom was mischievous, borderline selfless and selfish, in his spirits, funny, and slightly mature for his age. The life style, activities they all do that basically is what the first 30 mins are composed of just regular things you would do and say in any peaceful neighborhood you live in. It was when it was all taken away and part of Gen's family died I appreciated those things as well as the same things I have a lot more because once their gone their gone forever.We see Gen just struggling to keep his family composed of his mom and baby. Even though he may seem like his usual self, when things get hard we do see some emotional cracks from some of the powerlessness he suffers due to the bleak non fruitful conditions as well as dealing with the recent loss of his family.However the film isn't all dark, things do get better due to Gen's unbreakable sense of hope. It's like with Andy from "The Shawshand Redemptions" it was the one thing that was keeping him, his family , and the people he's helped along the way alive, without it I doubt they would of made it. But despite all that there was one scene near the end that is one of the most heartbreaking scenes ever which broke my heart into a million pieces and made me cry.Gen, his family and everyone else in that tragedy will live in my heart forever. Life always goes on even in the darkness of tragedy.Rating: 4 stars

I was warned that this movie was graphic and heart wrenching, but being curious I decided to watch it as I have seen graphic dark animation before such as Grave of the Fireflies, Watership Down, Plague Dogs, When the Wind Blows, Felidae etc so I thought I would be able to handle it... Boy was I wrong.I learned that the effects of the bomb were horrible but not this horrific. Just seeing people including young children melt away to nothing, dogs yelping in pain as it's coat caught on fire, horribly unrecognizable,graphically burnt people walking down the street like zombies (Were they still alive?) a mother laughing hysterically after losing her family... This had struck me down to the core watching this and lasted hours after watching the film. I also kept thinking... How can humankind be so cruel? This movie was hard to watch but movies like this should not be hidden. Movies like this should be view to the world for hopes on peace. Never again should this happen.

I've read the comic books of barefoot gen when i was in the elementary school. My teacher had the whole series of it, and i was really horrified when i first read it, but i was very curious and was into it after all. When I saw the movie, I liked the comic book better, but still it describes the horror of the war. I watched this movie with my grand parents who was in Hiroshima at that time, who really experienced it, said this movie describes it so well. hopefully I think anyone would experience this sad incident again, but it is really important to get an idea of what had happened in the real world. this movie is the best way i know to get a sense of it.