Nuclear blasts devastated its western city of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the south at the close of World War Two, killing more than 200,000
“Oppenheimer”, the Best Picture winner, finally premiered in Japan on Friday, after eight months of a controversial grassroots marketing push and concerns about how its nuclear theme would be received in the only country to suffer atomic bombing.
Directed by Christopher Nolan, the film about U.S. physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led the race to develop the atomic bomb, has grossed nearly $1 billion globally after winning big at this month’s Academy Awards.
Despite being a major market for Hollywood, Japan had not been included in global screenings until now. The country had witnessed the devastation caused by nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War Two, leading to the deaths of over 200,000 people.
“Of course this is an amazing film which deserves to win the Academy Awards,” said Hiroshima resident Kawai, 37, who only provided his family name. “But the film also depicts the atomic bomb in a way that seems to praise it, and, as a person with roots in Hiroshima, I found it difficult to watch.”
A big fan of Nolan’s films, Kawai, a public servant, went to see “Oppenheimer” on opening day at a theatre that is just a kilometre from the city’s Atomic Bomb Dome. “I’m not sure this is a movie that Japanese people should make a special effort to watch,” he added.
Images on social media showed signs posted at the entrances to some Tokyo theatres, warning that the movie featured images of nuclear tests that could evoke the damage caused by the bombs. Another Hiroshima resident, Agemi Kanegae, had mixed feelings upon finally watching the movie.
“The film was very worth watching,” said the retired 65-year-old. “But I felt very uncomfortable with a few scenes, such as the trial of Oppenheimer in the United States at the end.”
After opening in the United States last July and becoming a global hit, many Japanese were offended by fan-created “Barbenheimer” online memes that linked it to “Barbie”, a blockbuster that opened around the same time. Universal Pictures initially left Japan off its global release schedule for “Oppenheimer”.
However, Bitters End, a Japanese distributor of independent films, eventually picked up the movie and set a release date after the Oscar awards ceremony.
Atomic bomb survivor Teruko Yahata, 86, expressed eagerness to see the film, hoping it would re-invigorate the debate over nuclear weapons.
Yahata also empathized with the physicist behind the bomb. This sentiment was echoed by Rishu Kanemoto, a 19-year-old student, who saw the film on Friday.
“Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the atomic bombs were dropped, are certainly the victims,” Kanemoto said.
“But I think even though the inventor is one of the perpetrators, he’s also the victim caught up in the war,” Kanemoto added, referring to the ill-starred physicist.
