"While most of Black Rain takes place in 1950, the film's astonishing opening sequence places us at the epicenter of the event, August 1945." - Andrew Schenker

Personally I see no reason as to why this was rated so highly for me, other than the fact that people felt bad about the atrocities of that war that giving a movie about the victims of said war a good score would be some sort of compensation. People worry more about subject material than content. The content in this movie is severely lacking any sort of entertaining quality, its more about marriage proposals and less about the actual horrors of the atom bomb. don't kid yourself about this.

At times, as a viewer, I felt manipulated, and at others, I was genuinely moved. So... I'm not sure how to feel about this.

Endearing.

A masterful look at the consequences of Hiroshima, both physical and mental, on its survivors.

The bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath through the eyes of a small family. That this film is disturbing and depressing is a given, and if the turns the story takes are predictable, it doesn't make them that much less powerful. Imamura worked under Ozu, and the influence can be seen; in many ways this is an Ozu story filtered through the bleakness of something like Dodesukaden. The scene with Yuichi describing his PTSD was unnecessarily over-the-top, but otherwise nothing to complain about.

Intermittently moving, despite its uncertainties of tone.

Everything I love about movies can probably be found in here somewhere. The way radiation is like an STD is clever and understated, and the fact that this is based on Hiroshima makes the melodrama appropriate. Damn humanity for making the basis of this plot truth rather than science fiction.