‘OPPENHEIMER’ OPENS IN JAPAN
No official explanation given for delayed release of Oscar favourite
OSCARS best picture winner Oppenheimer was finally released yesterday in Japan, where its subject — the man who masterminded the creation of the atomic bomb — is a highly sensitive and emotional topic.
The blockbuster hit screens in the United States and many other countries in July at the same time as Barbie, inspiring a viral phenomenon dubbed “Barbenheimer” by moviegoers.
But while Barbie was released in Japan in August, Oppenheimer was conspicuously absent from cinemas for months.
No official explanation was offered at the time, fuelling speculation the film was too controversial to be shown in Japan — the only country to have ever suffered a wartime nuclear attack.
Around 140,000 people died in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki when the US dropped atomic bombs on the cities in 1945, days before the end of World War 2.
At a large cinema here where Oppenheimer was showing yesterday, there was none of the prominent promotional material that might be expected for a global megahit.
Instead only one small poster advertised the film, which was shot on a US$100 million budget and collected nearly US$1 billion at box offices worldwide.
The film tells the story of US physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who oversaw the bomb’s invention.
It drew rave reviews and was the most decorated title at this month’s Oscars, scooping seven awards including best director for Christopher Nolan and best actor for star Cillian Murphy.
But in Hiroshima, the city devastated by the first nuclear bomb, the biopic’s Academy Awards success met a mixed reaction.
Kyoko Heya, president of the city’s international film festival, said after the awards ceremony that she had found Nolan’s movie “very America-centric”.
“Is this really a movie that people in Hiroshima can bear to watch?” she asked.
Today the city is a thriving metropolis of 1.2 million people, but the ruins of a domed building still stand as a stark reminder of the horrors of the attack, along with a museum and other sombre memorials.
Heya said after much reflection, “I now want many people to watch the movie.”
“I’d be happy to see Hiroshima, Nagasaki and atomic weapons become the subject of discussions thanks to this movie.”