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KUROI AME - The Black Rain
(La Pioggia Nera)

KUROI AME – The Black Rain

A NAGISA OSHIMA FILM

Directed by: Nagisa Oshima

starring:
Ryuichi Sakamoto as Shizuma Shigematsu
Ryuhei Matsuda as Sichiro
Yumi Adachi as Yasuko
Fumi Dan as Shigeko

Victim 1
Victim 2
Victim 3
.....
Victim 217,315
Victim 217,316
Victim 217,317
.....

Written by Ibuse Masuji & Maurizio Giannini.
Loosely based on “Kuroi ame” of Ibuse Masuji.

Prologue ...the story and few explanations about the film

Year 1955. Sichiro, student at the University of Tokyo, goes to Hiroshima to research the effects of the atomic bomb on the inhabitants of the city. He meets Shizuma Shigematsu (Ryuichi Sakamoto), survivor of the explosion, and Shizuma recounts what happened that day. The bomb was dropped at 8:15 am on August 6, 1945 from a B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay. The bomb with a parachute and exploded several hundred feet above the ground. "A bright light filled the plane," wrote Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay. Most of the people within a mile radius of the explosion were killed, most buildings destroyed. The survivors waited for death as emergency services were minimal. The cremation fires burned day and night. These are short stories of ordinary people drawn by Nagisa Oshima.  "KUROI AME - The Black Rain" is a mosaic from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The movie emerges as a significant work of art distinct from the many social or political accounts of the bombing. In the depiction of ultimate act of violence, Nagisa Oshima used contrasts between horror and humor, destruction and beauty, and the state and the individual to give an intimate and morally and psychologically full picture of the devastation. The movie, set in August 1945, has neither music nor a soundtrack. The only sound is the noises and the sounds that the protagonists hear during their walk. The only music comes during the parts set in 1955.  This music, reminiscent of the ringing of Japanese bells, is by Ryuichi Sakamoto. The images of the year 1945 are in black and white but colors are used to emphasize the bomb explosions.

ENJOY THE MOVIE

Black Screen

Music is heard. The title credits appear.

KUROI AME – The Black Rain
A NAGISA OSHIMA FILM

MAGIA Production presents a NAGISA OSHIMA film "KUROI AME – The Black Rain"
starring RYUICHI SAKAMOTO RYUHEI MATSUDA YUMI ADACHI FUMI DAN
music by RYUICHI SAKAMOTO
written by IBUSE MASUJI & MAURIZIO GIANNINI supervision by HYPERBOY - loosely based on “KUROI AME” of IBUSE MASUJI
produced by MAGIA Production - directed by NAGISA OSHIMA

Black Screen

A notice appears on the screen, while a voice is heard reading it.

In this film there is not one image of the bomb, but as many as the eyes have seen it. Only fragments of scene that advance slowly without sound, with a serene shiver detachment: images in that strange "silence of dead" that many survivors remember have felt on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki ruins.

An image of the Hiroshima ruins fades in, and there is absolute silence..

The music begins again. The image cross-fades to the face of a young boy (Sichiro).

INT – Compartment of a train still at the station.

The camera pans back, and we see that the young boy is in the compartment of a train. The train starts to move.

Sichiro (Voice over): I was at Hiroshima to carry out research into the effects of the atomic bomb on the people. For this I went to meet Shizuma Shigematsu, one of the survivors of the explosion. I cannot expect that my attention will not also be drawn to his niece, Yasuko…

The image of the train fades out while the image of Sichiro fade in on the screen. He is walking side by side with a man (Shigematsu).

EXT – Hiroshima, suburbs street

Sichiro: …during the war, for the sake of maintaining order, we were limited in our use of written announcements and notices.  The subjects of conversation were also regulated by the government.

Shigematsu: It’s true, but by the end of the war, there were notices about muggings, thefts, gambling, the troop’s supplies, and people that grow rich.  There were also notices about the forces of occupation.  In short, notices of every kind were expanded overstepping all limits.

Sichiro: But … then, as the days stretched into months, gossip and rumors were reappraised.

Shigematsu: It would have been better that if the rumors about Yasuko had follow the same path…

Sichiro: …but they unfortunately did not, did they?

Shigematsu: No. And now, every time somebody comes to make proposals of courtship, they hear the same story: that she was in the kitchen of the Auxiliary Corp of the Second Middle School of Hiroshima.

Sichiro: …and thus was victim of the atomic bomb?

Shigematsu: And this is not enough.  The rumors also add that Shigeko and I hide that she is ill. For this reason, there are no wedding plans. The persons that wish to court her hear these rumors in the neighborhood.  When they hear this gossip, they become evasive and break off the negotiations.  But … this doesn’t concern your research.  Excuse me, but for me it is a weight that grows day after day.

Sichiro: It is quite all right.  I think that your daughter’s fate is also one of the many consequences of the bomb. If you don’t mind my asking, where was Yasuko that day? And how is the Hiroshima school connected?

Shigematsu: During the morning of August sixth, the students of the Auxiliary Corp of the Second Middle School of Hiroshima were in line at the West Block Point of the Shinohashi bridge in the center of the city.  They were listening to the instructions of the teacher when the bomb was dropped.  At that moment they were enveloped by the fire.  The teacher nevertheless ordered them to stay still and sing in chorus, softly, the patriotic song “If we fight on the sea…”.  As the song finished, the teacher ordered: “The line may now be broken”, and he was the first that threw himself to the river. The students followed him. The fact was reported by the only student that was able to escape and return to his house. He died that same day.  This part of the story is true.  But the rumor that Yasuko worked in the kitchen of the Auxiliary Corp of the Second Middle School of Hiroshima is absolutely groundless.  Yasuko worked in the factory of Textile Society of Japan in the city of Furuichi, out of Hiroshima.  She was head of the secretarial staff there.  There isn’t any connection between the Textile Society of Japan and the Auxiliary Corp of the Second Middle School of Hiroshima.

The two men arrive at a typical wooden Japanese house.

Shigematsu: Here we are.  This is my house. My wife won’t be back for at least two hours, so why don’t you come in? We could continue our conversation over a cup of tea.

Sichiro: I don’t want disturb you…

Shigematsu (not listening): Please, come in.  I’ll show you the evidences that Yasuko does not have the atomic disease.

INT – House of Shizuma Shigematsu

Sichiro is seated on the ground, his legs are crossed as the Japanese custom dictates. Shigematsu arrives with a book in his hands and, sitting in front of Sichiro, shows him a diary.

Shigematsu: This is the Yasuko’s diary, and it proves she wasn’t in Hiroshima that day. Besides she has never had the symptoms of the atomic disease. She was examined by doctors and head physicians, and then, at the Center of Public Health, she was subject of to the periodical tests given to the survivors.  The number of red corpuscles in the blood, intestinal parasites, urine, beat, stethoscope visits, and everything else was normal and perfect.

Sichiro: Your niece can be considered lucky, and you too, Mister Shizuma.  I know you are one of the survivors of the atomic disease.

Shigematsu: My family doctor told me about my atomic disease, and then the head physician, Mister Fujita of Fukuyama, gave me the same diagnosis.

Sichiro: When did the first symptoms appear?  Immediately?

Shigematsu: The first signs appeared shortly after the bombing, and I noticed them because my strength failed me when I was working in the fields, and several sores appeared on my head. If I pulled my hair, it would fall out with little difficulty. During this time, I tried to relax and eat plenty of nourishing foods.

Sichiro: Yes, I read that during the disease’s initial phase, a man feels a serious physical weakness, and that the most important thing to do is to relax and eat plenty of food.

Shigematsu: If someone strains himself working, little by little he loses energy and dies, much like a pine transplanted by an unable gardener. In many neighboring villages, people returned in excellent health from Hiroshima and thought they escaped the danger.  However, after one or two months of hard work, they would spend one week, maybe ten days in bed, and then they passed away.

Sichiro: True.  After the weakness, the hair loss sets in, as does the loss of teeth.  Finally, they lose consciousness and die.

Close up on the face of Shigematsu. It is obvious he is worried. A drop of sweat is running down his forehead. Sichiro see it.

Sichiro: But maybe you’d prefer not to talk about this…

Shigematsu: No, no, …talking about with somebody eases my burden. I am always struggling to wipe out the memories of that day, hoping that the other people will also forgot I was in Hiroshima. Maybe it is just because I was there when the bomb exploded that Yasuko doesn’t find a husband.  Alas, before the bomb was dropped, we heard the familiar warnings by the radio announcer: “A team of B29 is advancing north over the sea, 120 kilometers south of the Kii Canal”.  That ominous morning, the announcement was: “An airplane in advancing north  . . . ”, but I didn’t pay attention because we’d been hearing warnings day and night, every day. We were so accustomed to the sirens that we didn’t worry any more than we did before the war began.

The frame get to the face of Shigematsu.

Shigematsu: I went out in the morning to go to work and, like every day I entered into the Yokogawa station…

The images loss colors and we see the face of Shigematsu in black and white and much younger.

INT – Station of Yokogawa

Shigematsu is quickly advancing to the train.  Nobody is on the platform.

Mrs. Takahashi: Good morning, Mister Shizuma

Shigematsu: Mrs. Takahashi, good morning. We must hurry.  It seems the inspector is waiting for us. There is nobody else on the platform.

The camera moves behind Shigematsu and Mrs. Takahashi. The train is in front of them.

Mrs. Takahashi: Yes, in fact. Mister Shizuma, maybe now is not the best time, but we need your seal for those documents we talked about last week…

While Mrs. Takahashi is talking, a ball of blinding light is seen three meters from the train. Suddenly, everything becomes black. For few seconds we cannot see nothing. All that can be heard are screaming voices.

Voice 1: Get out! Out! Get out!!

Voice 2: Get off!

Voice 3: Move yourself!

Voice 4: Ah!

Voice 5: Oh!

We continue to hear screaming voices, shrieks, and moans. The black lessens little by little until a foggy vision of the station can be seen. The train passengers are getting off all at the same time, pushing one other from the railway car. Shigematsu is lying on the ground. Near him are the bodies of other people. He is surrounded by screams and crying voices.  He is able to free himself with little effort from the corpses on and near him. Trying to move himself among the screaming throng, he start to screams too.

Shigematsu: Let me back!  Go back!

The camera follows him while he elbows his way through the throng.  Fighting against a wave of people, he advances step by step. The screams of fear are much more intense than the moans of agony. Shigematsu advances few steps more and beats against a pillar. He hugs it tightly so as not be dragged away by the mob. The camera tightens on him while he is beaten and pushed on the right then on the left. More than once he is almost torn from the pillar. We see his hands be squashed many times and his body beat against the pillar. Shigematsu closes his eyes. The confusion around him becomes like an indistinct whirl. We continue hearing the chaos all around him as it is softnening little by little. Shigematsu open his eyes. All around him, there is absolute silence.  We see the station darkened by a brown fog while a chalky substance rains down from the sky. There is nobody around. Dozens of electrics cable hangs near Shigematsu as he starts to leave the station. The camera follows behind him while he exits the destroyed building. He stops himself to look out of the doorway. The camera switches to Shigematsu’s point of view. The nearest houses are barely standing, crumbled, or are reduced to indistinct rubble.  Everything is covered in a layer of tiles from roofs. Beyond the street, through those waves of tiles is a young woman, visible only from the torso up.  She lies buried in the tiles that she tosses randomly while screaming shrilly.

Shigematsu: Eh, Miss, let me help you out of there. If you toss the tiles at me, I cannot help her.

The young woman starts to toss the tiles at Shigematsu and continues to scream.

INT – House of Shizuma Shigematsu

The image returns to the house where Shigematsu is absorbed in his story, with Sichiro sitting in front of him..

Shigematsu: I was forced leave because she wouldn’t stop throwing those tiles. When she was low on tiles, she began breaking them into little pieces and then she tossed … It seems strange to me that she was able to move her upper body so easily when her lower body was trapped by a beam or something else and kept her in the mass of tiles.

The camera swivels 90° and stops behind Sichiro. We see Shigematsu with the Yasuko’s diary in his hands. His hands tremble. Sichiro looks at them. 

Sichiro: But Yasuko, at the moment of the explosion … where she was?

Shigematsu opens the diary and start reading it.

Shigematsu: That day, Yasuko had taken off work to go to a party into the Nojima’s house. She left our house early in the morning.  Mister Nojima’s van came to pick her up at about 4:30 in the morning.

The image of Shigematsu cross-fades to a group of women loading their luggage onto a van. We continue hearing the voice of Shigematsu.

EXT – Hiroshima, house of Shigematsu

Shigematsu: Her companions were the wives of Nojima, Miyaji, Yoshimura and Doi. All the women were from the same area. After everything was loaded, they left.  It was about 5:30 when they finally departed.

We see the van starts. It goes along a street. The women are talking.

Woman 1: The night before, there was an air alarm too.

Woman 2: Yes, it was at 3:00. A team of B29s passed nearby, but they were gone quickly.

Yasuko: My uncle got back from his night watch and told me about a B29 that dropped leaflets yesterday near Kobatake.  The leaflets read, “We didn’t forget about Fuchu. We will perform an air raid during the next few days.”

Woman 3: Will Fuchu be bombed?

Yasuko: It isn’t certain, but my uncle says that the leaflet was written as a threat.

Woman 4: Two days ago, one man coming from Yamanashi district told me that before Kofu was bombed by a B29, leaflets were dropped containing propaganda messages, stamped on a beautiful, fine paper.  As far as I know the message said that in Saipan, the Japanese will prosper if they are under American dominion. A similar paper in Hiroshima is impossible to find.

The van is running through a wide-open space. On the side we see cultivate fields. At distance, in the center of a field is the black outline of a man hanging high in the air. As the van approaches the field, we see that the man is a scarecrow. The van slows down and the conductor beats on the divisor to ask for attention.

Nojima: Look! What a strange thing!

Woman 1: What is that?

Woman 2: It isn’t a puppet.

Yasuko: That’s true, but the face, hands and the feet are finished off like a statue. It seems made in paper-mâché.

Woman 3: Maybe. Is it a scarecrow made by the natives of southern countries?

Woman 4: For me, it seems like a department store’s dummy that has been blackened by the smoke of an incendiary bomb.

Woman 1: I was frightened. I thought it was a real man who was burned.

The van arrives near a farm. The shutters are closed. An old couple appears at the door when the van arrives. The  camera cuts to the face of Shigematsu.

INT – House of Shizuma Shigematsu

Shigematsu: Nojima’s parents were waiting them. They unloaded the luggage and then, at 8:00, Mister Nojima decided to offer them some tea and peaches.

The black and white image of Yasuko at Nojima’s house appears on the screen.

INT – House of Nojima

We see Mister Nojima preparing the tea. Four children are playing and sitting in the van that is parked outside. Yasuko is seated near the door and is watching the preparation of the tea. Nojima remove the lid from the pot of boiler water. Just then, an incredible flashing white light moves across the sky, turning green as it goes, like a meteor that is a hundred times greater than the sun. After a split second, we hear a deafening detonation.

Nojima: It passed like lightning.

Yasuko runs and hides in a shelter by the rocks of the little hill in the garden. Some of the others follow her. Others hide themselves behind the trees. The children get off the van.

Nojima: The refuge is on the back.

Nobody moves. All are staring at Hiroshima in absolute silence. Smoke is rising. It seems like volcano of smoke that causes a cluster of clouds with a sharp outline. We see Yasuko’s legs trembling.

Nojima: Could be a new weapon.

Woman 1: Is the ranger passed?

One after the other, everyone come out from their hiding places and approach the gate, all while looking at Hiroshima. More smoke rises, widening the cloud.

Yasuko: It reminds me of the image I saw one time in a photo, of jerry cans burning in Singapore. It was a photo taken immediately after the Japanese army obliged Singapore to surrender.  The scene was so terrifying that I asked myself if such a think was possible.

Woman 2: The smoke continues going up.  It is enormous!

Woman 3: It seems an umbrella.

Yasuko: It seems … it is a monster!

Nojima: It could be an arsonist’s bomb.

Woman 4: No, it must be a new weapon.

Yasuko: Look at the rubble!

The camera shows the point indicated by Yasuko. A house with the thatched roof is crumbled. All the tiles have been blown away. Nobody speaks.

Nojima: You are worried about your family. If you wish, I can take you to Hiroshima immediatly.

The cloud continues growing.

Woman 1: Yes, I pray you.

Woman 2: Thanks.

Woman 3: I place my trust in you.

The camera got on Sichiro and Shigematsu sitting together.

INT – House of Shizuma Shigematsu

Sichiro: What a courageous person, that Mister Nojima!

Shigematsu: Courageous, astute, and cautious. When he got the van on the street, it was 9:00.  Black clouds were thickening over Hiroshima, and it was very dark. When he saw a bicycle coming, he stopped the van and talked with the man. As a result, Mister Nojima changed direction and returned back to Miyazu’s beach.  There, he went to the house of a fisherman and rented a boat.

EXT – Miyazu’s beach

Black and white frame of Mister Nojima and the women while they board the boat. The boat starts to move towards Hiroshima. The mushroom cloud seems larger still.

Shigematsu (voice over): The women on the boat made a pact. No one was looking to the city. Mister Nojima leans out of the boat every so often and picks up waste on the surface of the water to see what the stream has taken.

Nojima (to the sailor-man): Eh, Tanomura, now the tide is ebbing, is it?

Nojima is looking a piece of wood. It is 10cm x 20cm. It seems to have been torn from something. Nojima’s face stiffens. Yasuko look at him.

Yasuko: What’s happened?

Nojima: It seems to be a fragment from an house floor. All that remains is the design of Fuji Mountain with a boat nearby and a pine tree. The rest is burnt. At the moment when the ball of fire ripped open the sky, the heat must have burnt the wood in an impression of the design of the glass. The force of the explosion must have carried it away and dropped it into the river.

Nobody dares say anything. Nojima throw the wood into the water.

INT – House of Shizuma Shigematsu

Shigematsu: When they arrived at Hiroshima, the river was clouded by a black smoke.  Though they saw flames everywhere, they could not see the municipal palace. It was dark like the sun had set. After they unload at Sendamachi, they saw that all the houses were bent and the walls crumbled. There was nobody in the houses.
I too wished to come home after I escaped the station.

EXT – Station of Yokogawa

Black and white frames. The camera shows Shigematsu getting out the station after the bomb explosion.

Shigematsu (Voice Over): Out of the station, to the east, there was a temple, completely destroyed. Only few pillars were left. Everything outside of the station was razed to the ground. Nothing remained. All that I saw walking for 100 meters along the railway from the Yokogawa station to the Mitaki Park was death, destruction, and desolation.

The camera follows Shigematsu while he is walking on the ruins. The people along the street are covered in something like ash or black powder. There isn’t one that is not bleeding.  They bleed from the head, from the face, the hands, the breast, the back, the thighs, and from every other part of body. A woman passes near Shigematsu walking with her hands in front like a ghost.  Her cheeks are swollen like heavy bags. Another has a baby in her hands and screams.

Woman with baby: Give me water! Give me some water!

Among the screams, she continues to dry the eyes of the baby. The camera closes on the baby. The eyes are covered in something that seems like ash. A man screams, women and babies are running screaming with no destination, others are standing while they moan for the pain, and a man is seated on the ground of the street shake his hands against the sky. Between the screams, Shigematsu hears his name.

Voice of woman: Mister Shizuma. Mister Shizuma.

Shigematsu: Who you are? Where you are?

A woman’s hand takes Shigematsu. She is Mrs. Takahashi.

Mrs. Takahashi: I’m happy to see you.

Her face is faint, and she is trembling. She squeezes Shigematsu’s hand.

Mrs. Takahashi: Mister Shizuma, what’s happened? What a confusion!

Shigematsu: There was a bombardment.

Mrs. Takahashi: Where?

Shigematsu: I don’t know, but it is sure that we were bombed.

The woman looks at Shigematsu with concern.

Mrs. Takahashi: Mister Shizuma, your face is injured. The skin is coming off and has changed color. Are you in pain?

Shigematsu puts his hands on the face and feels that the skin is sticky. He looks at the palms (now shown by the camera) and sees that his hands have something like strips of blue paper on them.

Shigematsu (Voice over): It was really strange: I didn’t remember being hit on the face. I thought it was ash and tried to wipe it away with my fingers. I tried again but Mrs. Takahashi took my hands.

Mrs. Takahashi: No,  don’t touch it. Not until you put some medicine on it. Otherwise, it could get infected.

Shigematsu (Voice over, while the images continue): I felt no pain, but I felt a sense of restlessness, and I shivered often. On my left cheek, I felt irritation like many little specks were attached. When I tried tightening the skin by opening and closing my mouth, I felt something sticky. It was like the confusion around me disappeared. I didn’t faint, but in that moment, I had a shock impossible to describe.

Shigematsu: Something serious has happened. Mrs. Takahashi, it is something serious, so we have to remain calm. We should think before to do anything.  We have to stay calm.

Mrs. Takahashi: How it could be so unexpected? I don’t know if it is a bomb or something else, but this time, they have crossed the line. It is too much.

Shigematsu: Mrs. Takahashi, you have your head and face covered by the ash. It is like you have on a wig of ash.

Mrs. Takahashi shakes her hair with hands. That thing similar to the ash or powder falls over her face and shoulders. She turns the head at right and at left and blows away the ash. She stoops and shaking the head, beats the hair with hands. Shigematsu shakes his head too, and a cloud of ash rises.

Shigematsu: It’s not enough Mrs. Takahashi. Stop. Stop! We have to look for water to wash with.

Mrs. Takahashi: You’re right. I saw a drum with water out in the garden of the school nearby.

They go to the garden for water. Mrs. Takahashi, knowing where the drum was, runs there. Shigematsu tries to run, but immediately returns to walking because of difficulty. When he arrives at the drum, Mrs. Takahashi has washed herself.

Mrs. Takahashi: Mister Shizuma, you must not rub your face.

Shigematsu: Of course you’re right. I’ll dip my face but not rub it.

Shigematsu dips his face into the water of the drum and then shake his head. He repeats this three times.

Shigematsu: Ah! The sensation of the water on my face is very nice.

Not far away is a woman standing gloomy on the street, some black blood running from between her fingers as she holds a wound on her arm. At that moment, a boy arrives running along the street.  He runs up to another boy standing near the woman

Ragged 1: Brother, I am your brother. I am your Brother.

Ragged 2: Who you are?

Ragged 1: Brother, I’m your brother. Brother.

Ragged 2: Tell me your name and your school’s name.

Raggged 1: I am Sukune Kyuzo, first year at the First Middle school of Hiroshima.

The second boy draws back suspiciously.

Ragged 2: Ah, yes? If you are Kyuzo, then you should have socks and a purple shirt.

Ragged 1: Brother, I lost my socks. The shirt is full of holes and you cannot see the purple. When the bomb exploded, all of this happened. Brother, believes me! Acknowledge me!

Ragged 2: If you are Kyuzo, you must have on a particular belt.

The first boy, with his hands burnt, takes off the belt and shows it to the second boy.

Ragged 1: It is this.

Ragged 2: Kyuzu, you…

The second boy cannot speak.

END FIRST PART

INT – House of Shizuma Shigematsu

Shigematsu: Mrs. Takahashi and I started to walk without knowing which direction to go in. She decided to come back to the station to try to find the bag she lost at the moment of the explosion. I continued along the street to my house. I don’t know  anything more about Mrs. Takahashi. From the Misasa Bridge, I saw fires. It did not seem possible to travel the streets. The only possible way was to follow the railway, so I decided to do so. Along the walk I met a child.

EXT – Hiroshima Street - ruins

Along the street, groups of injured people are advancing slowly. Among them a child is slowly walking alone.

Shigematsu: Child, where are you going?

The child looks at him absently with no answer.

Shigematsu: Do you want to cross the bridge alone?

No answer.

Shigematsu: Do you want me to come with you?

The child nods his head. Shigematsu begins to walk next to him.  The child walks with open mouth and vacant eyes. He then looks at the sky and his eyes open wide. Shigematsu does the same.

Shigematsu: My God! Look what cloud!

The child remains with looking at the sky with an open mouth. The huge, horrible heap of clouds is growing high into the sky. On the top, it was wide like a mushroom. The cloud seems still but on closer inspection is in continuous motion. It expands its umbrella to the east, then widens to the west, then again to the east. Each time, a point of the mushroom displays a sinister light that changes color from red to violet to azure to green. In the meantime, it widens, boiling endlessly from the interior to the exterior. Its stem continues growing upwards at an incredible rate. Suddenly, someone speaks.

Woman 1: From the looks of things, I would expect a downpoar.

Shigematsu sees in front of him a middle-aged woman with a kindly appearance.  She approaches with a little girl,

Shigematsu: It could be, but it doesn’t seem like a rain cloud.  It seems something like porridge.  It is like nothing that I’ve ever seen before.

The woman looks from Shigematsu and to the child.

Woman 1: You cannot pass the Yokogawa Bridge with the child. There is a dreadful throng.

The woman points to the bridge as the camera focuses on it. We see the bridge and, on the other side, an overturned truck that blocks the street for hundreds, thousands of escaping people that are on the near side of the bridge.

Shigematsu: Why don’t the people come back?

Woman 1: They are escaping. All are injuring and have not the force to backtrack. There are many dead along the way.

Shigematsu: That cloud … everyone is asking what it is.

Woman 1: The people of the bridge call that “nuvola mukurikokuri”.

Shigematsu: The devil Mukurikokuri. This time he hasn’t come to scare the children. He has come to kill us all.

Woman 1: In any case, you can’t cross the bridge with the child.

Shigematsu (to the child): Have you heard? She said that the children cannot cross the bridge. Why don’t you go with this lady to the mountain?

The child looks at Shigematsu. He doesn’t speak.

Shigematsu: Well, we say good-bye here then.

The child nods his head. The lady put her hands on the child’s head and with a bow thanks Shigematsu.

Shigematsu: I’ll cross the bridge. I must return to my house.

Shigematsu sets out. In front of him is a young boy with a bleeding shoulder. Soon, the street becomes crowded. After a bend, the street and the fields on its side are overwhelmed by a human tide. A crowd of people with lost eyes push forward, trying to cross the bridge. Many are covered in black, dense blood. Some are still bleeding but they don’t seem to have the strength to do anything about it. They stagger, their arms swinging as they go where the crowd takes them.  They waver here and there when pushed by the crowd. A woman that has a child in his arms starts to run. 

Woman: No! He isn’t my baby! Where is my baby? I want my baby!

She sets the child down, but the child follows her.

Baby: Mammy, mom. Help! Mammy!

The couple is swallowed by the mass of people. The camera now shows a mother that is pushing her few things and her baby in a stroller. She is swept away by the people as they fall on the stroller, crushing it.  The woman is also trampled by ten or twenty people. We heard the scream of the woman as the image returns to the house of Shigematsu.

INT – House of Shizuma Shigematsu

Shigematsu: Following the crowd, I was able to cross the bridge.

Sichiro: What a horrible thing! But if Yasuko was not at house, why did you want to return at all costs?

Shigematsu: I had to get to the campus of the University of Science and Literature. It was not far from my house was the meeting point that I decided on with my family in the case of bombardment.

Sichiro: So Yasuko was returning there as well.

Shigematsu: Yes, but when I arrived, she wasn’t there. The meeting point was around the swimming pool. From the bridge, it was only four or five hundred meters away, but as I traveled along the street, I felt myself oppressed by a sensation like I was approaching a wild beast. When I arrived to the campus, I found it full of escaping people. When I arrived at the swimming pool, I saw my wife seated there on the diving board. We were to meet on the diving board because, in case of fire, we could jump into the water.

EXT – Hiroshima, campus of the University of science and literature

Black and white frames of the campus. Shigematsu approaches his wife Shigeko.

Shigematsu (to Shigeko): You are’t injuried, are you?

Shigeko: No.

Shigeko look at the face of Shigematsu then lowers her eyes without speaking.

Shigematsu: And what it is about the house?  What’s happened?

Shigeko: It is damaged, but it is still standing.

Shigematsu: And the fire?

Shigeko: The top of the pine started to burn, but it is so high that nothing happened.

Shigematsu: Yasuko should be safe.

Shigeko: I think so too.

Shigematsu: Are you hungry?

Shigeko: No.

Shigematsu: And what about our neighbours?

Shigeko: I escaped immediately, so I know nothing.

Shigematsu: I want see the house. If you want come with me, we are returning immediately in case Yasuko arrives here.

Shigematsu and his wife start walking and the image changes to a wooden house bent and without the shutters. All around we see smoke and small fires.

EXT – Hiroshima, house of Shigematsu

We see Shigematsu and Shigeko arriving. Shigematsu begins approaching a telephone pole that is burning. He finds a broken broom nearby and uses it to put out the flames.  He and Shigeko then go around to the back of the garden. We see a little pond. Shigematsu walks along the boarder of the pond with his wife following him. The camera focuses on two big, dead fish. They are more than 30cm long and have bloated stomachs.

Shigematsu: Look, I remember that one time when many fish died because of an earthquake. Among those there was one black one that was about 30cm.  I took it and dissected it, and I was amazed to see that its bladder was bloated like a balloon. It seems that when the fish get shaken violently, their nervous system, particularly the part that regulates the bladder, is paralyzed.  Thus, the bladder fills with gas moisture. Consequently, the intestines become compressed and body functions cease.

Shigeko continues looking down. The camera focuses the face of Shigematsu.

Shigematsu: When I was on the platform at the station, I could see only the ball of fire and feel the wind from the explosion. The fish are dead, the big pillars have flown away, and the walls have cracked or collapsed. So why are the human still alive? I cannot understand. Which kind of bomb is this?

Shigematsu gets up and walks to the kitchen window. The shutter has flown away. He looks inside the room and see a calendar. The camera focuses on the calendar. We see it is turned to August 6 . There is a motto of the day printed on the calendar. (It is written in Japanese. The translation appears.) “WE WILL FIGHT TO THE DEATH”.

Shigeko walks around to the front of the house and sees Yasuko seated on the porch step. Shigeko starts to cry when she sees her niece. Yasuko cries too.  Shigematsu rounds to corner to see Yasuko.

Shigematsu: Pay attention. Don’t rub your face. Do you have something sticky on your hands? Maybe tar or something similar?  Luckily, you’ve come back safe and sound.

Yasuko: Uncle, what’s happened to your face?

Shigematsu: Ah, this? It is only a little burning. There isn’t any water in the tubs. Come on and wash yourself in the lake.

Yasuko points to the spots on Shigematsu’s hands.  The black has not come off with washing.

Yasuko: Those are the sign of the black rain. They are attached to the skin.

Shigematsu: Toxic gas?

Yasuko: No, they aren’t toxic gases. They aren’t gases but seem to be the black smoke from an explosive. The water particles in the sky absorbed the smoke.  Now black rain is falling, particularly over the western zones of the city. Not long ago, I met a man from the Communal Sanitary Office and he told me that it isn’t hazardous to your health.

Shigeko: If a man from Sanitary Office said this, it is trustworthy.

Shigematsu: The smoke is obscuring the sky. It will not be long before the fires spread to here. We must go away, far from here, from the center of the city, to an open space.

Yasuko: Uncle, where we’ll sleep tonight?

Shigematsu: I think the best thing to do is to head for the infirmary.  Maybe we’ll be forced to spend the night along the river, but, when we arrive, we’ll find refuge and help.

The camera follows Shigematsu, Yasuko, and Shigeko as they set out.

Shigematsu (Voice over while we see the images): We came back to the bridge and along the street the number of wounded, compared with the morning, was increased. I noted that for one man, it was possible see his shoulder bone; a man and a woman carried the body of their baby by using a door as a stretcher; a woman’s hair was thick with blood, as was her face.  In fact, everything was the color of blood on her.  Only the eyes and the teeth were white. Arriving at the bridge, we found that everything was burning.  Not one house remained. The heat was stifling. The smoke was all around us. We crossed the bridge and saw, by the riverside, a horse that had collapsed on the ground, its four legs sticking stiffly into the air. The stomach, blackened from burns and bloated, would puff out slightly every so often, then return to its original position. It breathed shallowly, like it wanted us to see that it was still alive, though barely.  Barely.

Shigematsu: Let’s soak our napkins in the river so that we can cover our nose and mouth when the smoke blows against us.

Shigematsu (Voice Over while we see the images): Each time the smoke was dispersed by the wind, there appeared the department stores of Fukuya, the headquarters of the daily newspaper Chugoku, the branch of the Japan Bank, the Electrical Society Chugoku, and the capitol building spitting fire from the window; when the wind changed direction,we could only see weak smoke spirals. Some times it was possible to see into the distance, but we would be immediately covered by the smoke, and we had tot cover our eyes and our mouth with the napkin. After less than one kilometer, the napkin dried out. When we were covered by the smoke, we didn’t walk because it was dangerous.

Shigematsu: Don’t move! It is dangerous. We must wait until the smoke clears.

Yasuko trips over something and falls to the ground.

Yasuko: Ah! Uncle!

When the smoke clears up we see that the obstacle is a body of a dead woman that have in her arms the body of a dead baby.

Shigematsu (Voice Over while we see the images): Then I made my way along, keeping an eye out for anything that was black outside the smoke. In spite of thi,s many time we tripped over corpses on the ground. The asphalt, soft from the heat, stuck to our shoes and was not easy to walk across. We succeeded in traveling to the Yoshino Bridge, and there the smoke was less dense, because the northern districts of the city were the first to start burning.

Shigematsu: Oh, we are safe! We’ll live! We’ll be alive!

The two women don’t answer. Both their eyes are as red as the blood they are covered in.

Shigematsu: Come on, we’ve made it but we cannot rest ourselves yet. Come on.

In front of them, the land is flat with the ruins of buildings made out of carbon. The camera focuses on the rest of the wooden buildings still burning and little spirals of smoke rising from them. Behind them, a column of fire is rising into the sky. Shigematsu starts to walk again and the tired women follow him.

Shigematsu (Voice over while we see the images): The asphalt was sticky there too and was difficult to walk across. The lead of the electric wires was liquefied and fallen like tears on the ground, and designed along the street a rosary of silver grains. The corpses on the street here were fewer, though not by much. They were in many poses, but they had a commonality among them.  In more than 80% of the cases, they were prone. The only exception was a man and a woman, near the bus stop of the Hakushima Sanctuary.  They were with the face up, their knees pulled up against their chests, and their arms were spread open in a diagonal. Their bodies were naked and blackened with their backs immersed in a sea of faces. I didn’t see a similar scene. The hair, like everyone else’s hair, was completely burned away; I was only able to tell the man from the woman only by the shape of the bosom. Why did they die in this strange way? I could not understand.

Shigeko and Yasuko passed near the corpses without glancing at them. The image fades to black and then fade in to Sichiro and Shigematsu.

INT – House of Shizuma Shigematsu

Shigematsu: Corpses were everywhere I looked. Followed by the heat and wrapped by the smoke, they must have collapsed from the pain and, at that moment, fainted and died choking. That was our experience from our escape. We too have been walking one step away from death.

Sichiro looks at him in silence. At that moment, we hear a noise outside. The door is opened, and a woman enters the house.

Shigematsu (to Sichiro): Here is my wife. (to his wife) You are late Shigeko. (pointing to Sichiro) Mister Sichiro is the student I talked to you about.

Sichiro and Shigeko bow to one another. The woman looks at the husband with anxiety.

Shigeko: I was returning to house when the old man from the grocery shop ran in front of me. He had received a call from Yasuko.

Shigematsu: What’s happened to Yasuko?

Shigeko: He told me that Yasuko told him we must remain calm, and that she has decided to admit herself into the hospital of Kuishiki.

Shigematsu: What?

Shigeko: I too was dumb-founded. Then I sent a message to her parents praying that they come immediately, and I ran to the hospital.

Shigematsu: Yasuko admitted? Why?

Shigeko: I should tell you (whispering) what Yasuko told me at the hospital privately. Nobody else should hear this.

Shigematsu: Don’t worry. We have nothing to hide. Tell me how is Yasuko.

Shigeko (looking at Sichiro and than talking to his husband): The sickness started some days ago, but she didn’t wish worry us, so she tried to cure herself with the help of a medical book. At the beginning, she had a fever, and, consulting the medical manual, took one aspirin. Then, because her temperature didn’t go down, she took some Santonin.

Shigematsu: Is it a worm?

Shigeko: She has dysentery. After two or three days, the temperature goes down, but a painful abscess appeared on her bottom. She was embarrassed go to the doctor and spread it with an antibiotic ointment.

Shigematsu: I remember she didn’t wash for some days. She was afraid of infecting us.

Shigeko: When the abscess exploded, she was better, but the temperature started to go up again, and she started to lose her hair. She though had the atomic disease, so she ate three or four aloe leaves. It was at this time that she decided to go to the hospital.

Shigematsu: Yes, I realized the aloe of the garden was a little uprooted. It seems it is good for anaemia. Poor Yasuko.  She though she had to increase the red blood cells.

The image cross-fades to the face of Sichiro.

INT – Compartment of a running train.

Sichiro (Voice over): I knew in that moment, Mister Shizuma wished to run to the hospital, and I said good-bye to them. I went to the hospital during the next afternoon to find out about Yasuko health.

The image cross-fades to a hospital corridor. Sichiro rushes in. We see Shigematsu go to meet Sichiro.

INT – Hospital, corridor.

Sichiro: Good afternoon Mister Shizuma. How is your niece?

Shigematsu: Mister Sichiro, it is very kind of you to be here. The medics are treating her abscess. This morning she awoke with a temperature at 38°C. I spoke with Doctor Kuishiki, and he told me that during the night, the nurse found Yasuko kneeling on the floor while she cried with hre head on the bed. She told the nurse that the abscess was so painful, she couldn’t help crying. The nurse raised the hem of the nightdress and saw a mass of worms around the abscess. The doctor decided to intervene and remove all the infected parts. He saw this morning a new abscess near the anus.

Sichiro: Well, but … if the infected parts is removed, then what will happen?

Shigematsu: Little by little, the flesh will grow back.

Sichiro: But she will have scars. She supports this?

Shigematsu: I don’t know but….

The door opens and from the room comes two nurses. Sichiro looks into the room and sees a young woman on the bed.  She looks tired and sick. She is Yasuko.

Sichiro: Is she Yasuko?

Shigematsu: Yes, she is. During the afternoon, her temperature was 39°C. She had horrible pains. She took a diazina tablet, and now she must takes one every four hours. For lunch, when I gave her a peach, she didn’t bite it with frontal teeth but with the molars.

Sichiro continues listening in silence while looking at the woman in the room.

Shigematsu: When I asked her why, she answered that it was because the frontal teeth lost strength and are not good, and that she had the sensation that they wobble when she touches them with her tongue. And the abscesses seem to sprout and break like mushrooms.

Sichiro: What does this mean?

Shigematsu: I don’t know, but it seems all of her body is sick.  Her teeth wobble, she has pain from the abscesses, has a high temperature, and has continuous violent pain.

Sichiro (Voice over): I came back everyday, but I never entered Yasuko’s room. Mister Shizuma, probably to respect the niece, was always in the corridor and out of the room. Only yesterday, after nine days, was Mister Shizuma was by side of Yasuko. I gathered up courage and entered into the room.

INT – Hospital, Yasuko’s room.

The camera enters Yasuko’s room. Shigematsu is by the bedside. We see Sichiro enter.

Sichiro (whispering): Mister Shizuma.

Shigematsu (whispering too to not disturb): Mister Sichiro.

Sichiro: How is she today?

Shigematsu: The nurse told me that Yasuko is suffering from violent pains more often every day, and now, she seems to always be suffering them.

The camera focuses on Yasuko who, with no sound, is twisting because of the pain. She has lost weight; her lips are dry, her skin pale, and her nails dark. When she opens her mouth, we see she does not have front teeth.

Sichiro: She has lost her incisors.

Shigematsu: Yes, she no longer has her incisors. I don’t know when happened.  There are only the roots left. Two days ago, the teeth were wobbling to the roots, but she lost only the incisors and not the roots.

Sichiro: She has the swollen gums that bleed continuously.

Shigematsu: The blood doesn’t stop even with boric water.

The camera focuses to Yasuko. On the side of her mouth strains a little red thread.

Shigematsu: The nurse told me that Yasuko has two new abscesses. The others, six until now, were cut out, but the wounds aren’t healed yet. The new flesh is red like a watermelon. The skin around it is bluish, with colour like decayed flesh. The doctor told me that there are strange shadows into her blood and the number of red blood cells is around half of what it used to be. We need a miracle for her to get well.

INT – Compartment of a running train.

Sichiro is in the train compartment. The train is moving. Sichiro looks out. We see green hills and brilliant green fields.

Sichiro: If now, over the hills, a rainbow appears, the miracle will happen. If a rainbow appears, not white but in five colours, Yasuko will get well.

His eyes are looking to the hills.  In his voice, there is the hope of someone who reads the future knowing that it will not come true.

Fade out to black

Black Screen

Sakamoto music is heard. Fade in the photo of the burned corpses.

A notice appears on the screen, over the photo, while a voice is heard reading it.

The man of Hiroshima prefers to remain in silence until he will be in front of the dead. He wants to have his own life and his own death. He doesn’t wish his misfortunes shown and used like datum from any atomic movements or any other politic fight. The man of Hiroshima cannot celebrate the 6 of August; he only can let it pass away... silent... with its dead.

(Fade Out on black)

Black Screen

THE END

End Titles

KUROI AME – The Black Rain
A NAGISA OSHIMA FILM

Kuroi Ame – The Black Rain is Copyright © 2001 by Merlino
”Kuroi Ame” is Copyright © 1965-66 by Ibuse Masuji
This screen adaptation is for purposes of internet game Producerschair.com
and is not for commercial use.

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