Cheap Rhapsody in August (DVD) (Sachiko Murase, Richard Gere) (Akira Kurosawa) Price

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Customer Reviews of Rhapsody in August

Grandma stirs my repulsion for war and capitalism. Sachiko Murase, who plays Grandma, delivers one of the most powerful performances I've ever seen: dripping with 100% authenticity. Grandma frequently caused me to shed tears and I give her my Oscar for best actress.

Grandma lives simply. Yet her simplicity has been corroded, possessed by the ghosts of war, specifically the bombing of Nagasaki. She suffers loss, flashbacks, and mutation. She takes solace in Buddhism and non-violence, but "the eyes of the flash" always watch her. The "eyes of the flash" make it difficult for Grandma to live in the present moment.

Grandma, like a brave samurai, battles her own children to preserve her family's history and heritage. She utilizes not sword, bullet, or bomb, rather she leads by example and teaches via oral histories. Her children bow to the altar of American capitalism and the grandchildren idolitize American culture (daily clothing themselves in American t-shirts: M.I.T., New York Mets, USC Trojans, SMU, Brooklyn). Grandma assures that we viewers also not forget the horrors of the bombing of Nagasaki or the beauty of rural Japan.

Grandma displays shinigurai, before the eyes of family and filmviewers. Grandma has awareness of only "the eyes of the flash". Shinigurai means "being crazy to die", and Grandma leaps into the jaws of death, with no hesitation, as she battles the fierce eyes in the sky.

thoughtful treatment of the effects of war
This may be a minor film by Kurosawa, but anyone else would be thrilled to have made something so beautiful and thought-provoking. The film follows four children (the oldest is about to start college) who are visiting their grandmother in Nagasaki for the summer. They learn that their grandfather was killed (forty-five summers before) in the 1945 bombing of Nagasaki, and try to understand what that means for them now. Slowly, they come to understand both their grandmother and themselves better. This is a thoughtful treatment of the use of the atomic bomb, in large part because it manages to be profoundly anti-war without being hostile toward America. You will never forget the grandmother.

Does anybody know about the music?
In this movie there is one scene (if I^m not mistaken it is the visit to the place where they commemorate the victims of bombing) where you have either a requiem or a Stabat Mater.
Does anyone know about the composer?? Thank you.