Mark S Monday, October 10, 2005 Sensei – Japanese 1A Analysis and Reactions on Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Rhapsody in August’ Akira Kurosawa bases his movie, Rhapsody in August (in Japanese: Hachi-gatsu no kyôshikyoku) on Kiyoko Murata’s novel Nabe No Naka; both telling the story of a grandmother (obaasan) who, at times, cannot tell the difference between reality and her illusions from World War II. The grandmother’s name in the movie is Kane, played by actress Hisashi Igawa. The grandmother’s children have left for Hawaii and left their children with Kane, to stay in Nagasaki, Japan for the summer. The four pre-teen and teenage grandchildren get the experience of their lifetime as their elderly grandmother teaches and explains the happenings of atomic bomb “#2” while she recalls the happenings of her husband, the kid’s grandfather. At times the events and stories that no school-textbook can explain are full of emotion overwhelming grandmother, the grandchildren, and the viewer of this great film. Something beautiful and accomplished which Akira Kurosawa was able to capture, is two stories/perspectives; that of the grandmother, as well as how the grandchildren feel/act while being subjected to the stories of war and terror brought onto the Japanese people in 1945. Like most tragedies of great horror, it is hard for people who lived through it, to come out and talk about it.