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NAGASAKI: MEMORIES OF MY SON

原題
母と暮せば
Original Title
Haha to Kuraseba
Production Year
2015
Running Time
130min
Genre
/ /
Color
Color
Director
Cast
Sayuri YOSHINAGA 吉永小百合(KABEI-Our Mother, About Her Brother)
Kazunari NINOMIYA 二宮和也(The Lady Shogun And Her Men, GANTZ, Letters from Iwo Jima)
Haru KUROKI 黒木華(The Little House, The Great Passage)

70 years have passed since the end of World War II.
Director Yoji Yamada brings author Hisashi Inoue's final wish to the screen.

Introduction
70 years have passed since the end of World War II. The war has left us Japanese with many lingering questions that we have yet to find answers for. Perhaps it is our duty to preserve things that teach us of the frustration, desolation, and pain of those times, for the sake of future generations. They contain images that we must never forget over time. Filmmaker Yoji YAMADA, who spent his youth in Japanese-occupied Manchuria, has continued to confront questions that history has tasked us with solving. The seed of the story called Nagasaki: Memories of My Son cannot have fallen into the hands of this filmmaker by coincidence.
 
The origins of this film lie in a conversation between YAMADA and Maya ISHIKAWA, the third daughter of the late author Hisashi INOUE. After depicting Hiroshima in “Chichi to Kuraseba” (Living with My Father, also known as The Face of Jizo) and Okinawa in the unfinished “Ki no Ue no Guntai” (Army on the Tree), INOUE, toward the end of his life, felt strongly compelled to create a story set in Nagasaki. When YAMADA heard from ISHIKAWA that INOUE had wanted to write a tale called “Haha to Kuraseba” that took place in Nagasaki, it moved him deeply, and filled him with the determination to make a film along those same lines.
Synopsis
“Mother, you wouldn't let me go so I had a hard time getting here, but I've finally made it.”
August 9th, 1948. Nobuko (Sayuri YOSHINAGA), a midwife in Nagasaki, is stunned when she is suddenly visited by her son Koji (Kazunari NINOMIYA), who she thought had died three years ago when an atomic bomb fell on the city. That same day, she had stood before his grave and told herself: “In that instant, he was gone. It's time to let him go.” Nobuko asks Koji, “Are you well?” He doubles over in a fit of laughter. “I'm dead. Of course I'm not well.” From that day on, Koji begins to appear before Nobuko from time to time. He was a medical student, and had a girlfriend called Machiko (Haru KUROKI) who he planned to marry. She is a kind-hearted girl who has kept a concerned eye on Nobuko over the three years since the sudden loss of Koji, which left her with a gaping hole in her heart. Nobuko tells Koji, “If Machiko falls in love again, you'll have to let go of her. After all, you're no longer of this world.” However, her words only strengthen Koji's resolve. “Machiko only has me.” He understands the situation, but is unable to accept it, which endears him to Nobuko even more. Their time together is special: strange, but delightful. It seemed as if their happiness would last forever...