Ashita Trailer

The Music in Ashita

In this film, ” Ashita”, same melody is repeated several times. Most parts which this music is played are very ordinary, daily and happy scenes of the family. However, it is also used at the end of the film, the front and the back of the very scene, exploding atomic bomb. In my opinion, it is used to heighten the emotion of audience. Since all the family members has gone, while their theme music is still left. Music has a power for people to remind something emotional of the past. In the same context, audiences come to flash back to the life of the family with this melody. Also, continuous music after end of the film implies our-audiences- usual days having possibility about sudden attack of nuclear weapon.

Above this, there are some scenes that music is used effectively.

In the wedding ceremony scenes, woman sings a song about Japanese pronunciation on number. This song means nothing. It doesn't include social, political problem and worry about the war. Thus, I thought this song can be interpreted their ordinary days: they don't have to feel anxious and consider deeply.

A solider plays the harmonica in the room which his collegue is not long for this world. The melody he plays make us feel lonely, sorrowful, and mournful, because it allude the death of one soldier in no distant future.

Review 2 (Yuki)

Point of View
This movie is filmed in Japanese point of view. In this movie, women and children have roles just as important as men. The girl looked at the sky and bomb just explodes without any caution. This is the view from below. It shows Japanese lives right before A-bomb, it certainly is Japanese point of view. There are few scenes of Korean soliders and English soliders. Those Korean soldiers speak in Korean. Perhaps this is not really Japanese point of view, but I doubt if this was Korean point of view. I think this scene's point of view is anonymous, it just depicts the situation of that time.

Form of Social Criticism
I think this movie gives us a little sence of absurdism. Absurdism is the feeling people get when they can't find any meanings to life, people, and themselves. From the line in the beginning, "Should humans be erased like fog just the same as my mother and father?", audience gets the idea that something bad is going to happen to these characters but all they can do is just to keep on watching till the ends. In some sense, audience is waiting for their time to come. After bomb explodes, it makes each individual's life, all the joy and struggles, meaningless. This gave me a feeling of absurdism.
This movie also has nihilism. Just like "The man who stole the sun", all the struggles that characters went through and joy of life become nothing when nuclear explodes. There is nothing left. We don't know who survived and who died but the movie ends with explosion and it really makes it seem as if the world is over (at least their world is over).
The line "should human be erased like a fog the same as my mother and father?" gives us negative feeling, but I thought it may give us a little of hope as well. It says "my mother and father", thus it may be implying that the baby survived. I am not sure whether the director implied this or not, but I think it can be read in that way as well. (In addition, this line comes from a real person who survived from the bomb in Nagasaki, so there is a possibility of survival, and at least there are people who survived, there is a little hope.)

Reflection

After studying about this movie, I think the main message is that it can happen to anyone. I did not think that this movie is trying to make audience sympathize (althought, as a result, audience would). In this film, there is no any particular main character. Everyone in the film is important and they all have different things to deal with in life. It really dipicts our lives in the way that each individual are different and we encounter different events in life. In addition he also showed us Korean solider's life and English solider's life. They were in Nagasaki, thus they also died from Atomic Bomb. People who died from Atomic Bomb is not only Japanese and it could be anyone if s/he were in Nagasaki. No one has a reason to be killed by A-bomb. That's the message that I got from this film.

My feelings to the project

After tomorrow, when the blog is due, there is only one step left for this atomic bomb cinema course! Times really flies.  Adding in subtitles was a brand new experience for me, started from installing the software, then go on to the online manual to get started.  At first, I really had some difficulties in inserting the subtitles because the old and new files overlapped with each other.  But the problem was solved very soon.  The process was really time-consuming as I have to match the speaking duration of the actors and actress with the appearing-time of the subtitles.  In the past , I  have only learned to translate subtitles, I never realized that making subtitles needs so much patience and attentiveness.  I even intended to finish the whole film myself.  But since I still have other courses' work to do, it is impossible for me to finish it alone, so I sought help from Yup.  It took him a long time to finish as well because he encountered other technical problems.  Although the process was not smooth, both of us had learned a lot, and as Yup said on the presentation," maybe we can apply a part-time job on inserting subtitles." 

And for the blog, actually posting a new entry is not a difficult job because I used to have a blog on blogger as well.  But what makes it difficult is that there aren't much information and review about 'Ashita' available on the internet.  What I can find is only some very short review and mostly making a summary of the film.   Therefore, I decided to write one all on my own by referring to the previous lectures, and I realized me and my fellow groupmates have some common viewpoints.  Probably we should post our reviews to various film website so that more people can share our ideas when they search about 'Ashita'.  Another time-consuming job was to edit the web links, so that they appears as a word rather than an URL.  Since this is the final week of the quarter, all my groupmates are too busy with their reports and exams that they cannot afford the time to edit their links, so I simply gave them a hand and edited everything.  

Last but not least, THANK YOU Professor Progler! I really learned a lot in this course, from now  on when I watch movie, I will pay attention to the special effects, music and other stuff, rather than just the storyline. 

About 'Ashita'

Film title: Ashita
Country: Japan
Date of Release: 13 August 1988
Also known as: Tomorrow (International), Der Tag Davor (East Germany)


Director: Kazuo Kuroki [Related Post: (1), (2)]
Screenplay: Masako Inoue, Kazuo Kuroki, Juuichirô Takeuchi
Story: Mitsuharu Inoue


Cast:
Kaori Momoi (1) as Tsuruko / Pregnant sister
Kaho Minami (1) as Yae/ Bride
Nobuku Sendo (1) as Akiko/ Youngest sister
Shiro Sano (1) as Shoji/ Bridegroom
Arthur Kuroda (1) as Tsuguo/ Shoji's friend


Nomination and Awards
Awards of the Japanese Academy:
   Nominated: Best Art Direction - Akira Naitou
                        Best Cinematography - Tatsuo Suzuki
                        Best Lighting - Kenichi Mizuno
                        Best Music Score - Teizou Matsumura
                        Best Supporting Actor - Kunie Tanaka

Blue Ribbon Awards:
   Won: Best Actress - Kaori Momoi

Hochi Film Awards:
   Won: Best Film

Kinema Junpo Awards:
   Won: Best Actress - Kaori Momoi
             Best Director - Kazuo Kuroki

Mainichi Film Concours:
   Won: Best Art Direction - Akira Naitou

Nikkan Sports Film Awards:
   Won: Best Director - Kazuo Kuroki

In the view of cinema studies...

I thought about this movie in the view of cinema studies.

Without the last scene, this film seems just one of the human drama which contains laughing and sadness. We can realize the meaning of the title ‘Ashita’ after seeing the last scene.

The word ‘ Should human be erased like a fog the same as my father and mother ?’of the first part in this film is so important. This word connects with the last bombed scene, and it makes this story more grief.

Describing many kinds of people who are no related each other, this film try to tell that the atomic bomb can erase many kinds of people’s life easily.

All American movies have the happy-end, some Japanese movies have the sad last scene. This film especially has the shocking last scene in the Japanese films, I think.

Review 1 (Yuki)

Cinema studies and cultural studies (factors contributed the film)

Throughout this movie, music made the scenes very peaceful. The music was slow and very kind. If there is no line in the beginning of the movie, "should humans be erased like fog just the same as my mother and father?", audience wouldn't think the movie would end in such tragedy.

Most of the factors in this movie are dramatic truth. The vertile truth we can find is time records and image of A-bomb. Some of the images of buildings in Nagasaki is based on facts but since it was destroyed by the bomb, producers must have made imitation of the building. Also, the "red paper" to inform draft was actually used. On the internet, I have read that the line "Should human be erased like a fog just the same as my mother and father" came from actual survivor of the bomb, but there is no detail like who said it and so on.

The time records is vertile truth. I am not sure if this image is real A-bomb dropped in Nagasaki. I could not find out.


The image of Urakami Tensyu Do (Urakami Cathedral), located 500m (1640ft.) northeast from center of the explosion. Urakami is the name of the place. It can also be translated as St. Mary's Cathedral, and it was known as the biggest cathedral in East of that time, until it was destroyed by A-Bomb. No one in the cathedral survived. Its wreckage and melted statue of Mary are one of the most famous thing to see in Nagasaki Peace Museum.
Cathedral was rebuilt in 1959, but its appearance is different from original. Since there wasn't and technology of color animation, this image must be the imitation of original cathedral.

This is the real record of Urakami Cathedral after it was destroyed by Atomic Bomb.
Photo by AIHARA Hidetsugu, in his photographic collection "Genbaku wo Mitsumeru" (Looking at Atomic Bomb).
Taken in Jan. 7th, 1946.

See: World War II Database

Around the time this movie was made (1988), Japan was in the middle of Bubble economy. In one of Kuroki's interviews, he said that producers could gather big amount of money for the production. In addition, Toho (the industry) is one of the biggest film industry in Japan. It convinces why he could choose those famous actors (most of the actors in the movie were very famous and popular in Japan.)

In Kuroki's interviews, he said his experience of living in colony and losing his friends in aerial bombing, had alwasy been the biggest memory in his life. I think this experiences in his childhood contributed his will to make films about A-Bomb. When making the film one before "Tomorrow - Ashita", he had an opportunity to talk with hibakusya (the survivor of the bomb) from Nagasaki, and it gave him shock. He knew of Inoue, the writer, and approched that he wanted to make a movie on Inoue's book, "Ashita". In his later years, He made three films on A-bomb and in all of the three, main characters are ordinary citizens. I think he wanted to pay attention to individuals who experienced war, perhaps this is why his movies are called Trilogy of Requiem, for those who died in the war.

Some of the critics say that his earlier works are experimental. As he became old he started to talk about his childhood experience. Critics say that these films on war were what he really wanted to do for his life.

Interview with friends

I interviewed my friend, Yoshiaki.

His opinion is “I think the word‘ Should human be erased like a fog the same as my father and mother ?’of the first part in this film is so sad and meaningful. I think that this word suggests that the fear of atomic bomb and try to connect with the last sad scene. I reconfirmed the fear of atomic bomb to see this film.

This film has no dreadful scenes, for example people were slaughtered by the bomb and bleeding. This firm basically describes the daily life of the people in Nagasaki. And try to tell the fear of atomic bomb indirectly. The last scene was flashed of the atomic bomb only, and sound. It emphasizes the fear of atomic bomb, suggests that the atomic bomb has the power to erase the daily life in a spirit second. To see the last scene, we will understand the title‘Ashita’. This film tells us indirectly but the message is very strong. Describing the people try to live with hopes in spite of they are poor, the last scene emphasizes the sadness. ”

And this is my opinion after seeing this movie.

I think this story is unique.

There are many kinds of people in this movie, a couple of man and woman who held the wedding, and parturient pregnant woman, and the lovers who must say good-bye because of the invitation from an army. But each of them has no relations. To describe the many kind of people’s life, this film try to suggest that the atomic bomb can erase many people’s life easily, I think. I was absorbed in this story, I could hardly expect the last scene. I thought this movie is merely the human drama which has laughing and sometimes sad. But I saw the last scene, I felt unbelievable feeling suddenly. I was born in Japan, a country which has been atom-bombed, so I have learned the atomic bomb before. But I reconfirmed the fear of atomic bomb to see this film.

Interview with friends

I watched the movie together with my Japanese friend Natsuko. She is from Kokura, Fukuoka.

After watching the movie, first thing she thought is "This movie is very Japanese."

In Japanese culture, being too direct is seen as not-thoughtful and too pushy. This film never really have direct theme or message, we just keep on watching people's life for an hour, and suddenly the bomb exploded.

Also, this movie ends very hopeless. Audience watch character's personal life for more than an hour, but it makes it meaningless because bomb exploded. In the end of this movie, no good would come out. She said this kind of film cannot be found in Hollywood.

She said the message she get from the movie was that Atomic bomb destroys everything and no good would come out. Those who died in A-bomb are not special, they are just ordinary people with ordinary lifetime events, only difference is that they lived in war time period. The place she grew up, Kokura (in Fukuoka prefecture) was the initial target of A-bomb. A-bomb was supposed to be dropped on Kokura at first, but because of the weather condition on that day, they decided second target, Nagasaki, was better. Thus, she said this movie really made her to think that it could happen to anyone, including her ancestors.

She also mentioned something about Korean soliders in the movie.

In her point of view, the director, Kuroki, put this scene in the movie to be more realistic. These days Japan tends to be seen as victims, because "we are the only country who suffered from A-bomb" is quite often emphasized. However the truth is Japan is not victims, or not only victims. (in her point of view, in war, everyone is victim) She thinks that Kuroki had this thought in his mind, that's why he didn't show only Japanese lives but also Koreans.

She understands Kuroki wanted to put this in film, but she just thinks 100 minitues is too short for that and he needed more time if he wanted to show Korean soliders scene, or he had to cut some of scene with Japanese characters.

Overall, she said that this movie makes us to condemn war for taking innocent people's lives, and we should remember that it can happen to anyone.

Cast Profile - Arthur Kuroda

Arthur Kuroda was Tsuguo in 'Ashita', who was Shoji's friend since primary school.  His friend, David the American, died on the day before the bomb because of sickness.

Arthur Kuroda was born in 1 February 1961 in San Francisco, United States of American.  Because of his birthplace, he holds an American nationality.  He was later graduated from the School of Management in Meiji University.  

 

At the age of 21, Arthur made his debut in TV drama, acting in ‘Meiken Goroo no Bouken Viva! Canada”.  Starting from 1982, Arthur began to perform in various TV dramas.  Many female audiences were attracted by him because of his sweet face and Western aura.  In 1986, Arthur released his first single, Angel Baby.  

Apart from ‘Ashita’, Arthur acted in other movies as well, for example:

• Hachiko Monogatari (Shyoutiku, 1987)
• Rakuyou ( Rou Tomono, 1992)
• Koara Kachou (Kawasaki Minoru, 2005)

Source :

Arthur Kuroda's Offical Site

Arthur Kuroda - Wikipedia

Additional Information of the Director and the Film

The Director of the film "Tomorrow - Ashita", Kazuo Kuroki, was born in 1930.
When he was 5 or 6 (before primary school), he moved to Manchuria with his family and spent his childhood there. He came back to Japan to go to junior high school in Miyazaki Prefecture, where his grandparents lived.
After he got back in Japan he started to work in the factory. The factory was bombed during he was working. He survived from aerial bombing but 10 of his friends died. He saw his friend's head cracked open and his friend losing legs, all happening in front of him. This became his trauma. Together with stress caused by his difficulties with Miyazaki's dialect, he had neurosis. The World War II ended when he was 14 by neuclear bombing. (It may be interpreted differently. At least in Japan, the end of war is the neuclear bombing.)

In one of his interview, he said his experience of living in colony and experience of surviving from bomb had always been in his mind. Time after time he remembered his friends died in aerial bombing.

In Japan, the film "Tomorrow - Ashita" is known as Kuroki's Trilogy of Requiem, together with "Utsukushii Natsu Kirisima" (2002) and "Chichi to Kuraseba" (2004). (English titles are "A Boy's summer in 1945" and "The Face of Jizo".)
These three movies are about people's life before/ after neuclear bombing. The experience in his childhood may have caused him to consider tragedy of war happening not in the battlefield but in people's daily life. In the film "Tomorrow - Ashita", he drew attention to people's daily life and suddenly tragedy took over. In other two films of Kuroki's Trilogy of Requiem, the main characters suffer from feeling of guilt after surviving from A-Bomb (Guilty feeling that s/he survived while others died).
Thus, his experience in childhood certainly had influenced his film making.

Interview: Japanese Documentary Author Interview No.16, Kazuo Kuroki. Yamagata International Film Festival. For English translation, click here .

More on About the Director - Kazuo Kuroki

Cast Profile - Shirou Sano

Shirou Sano as Nagakawa Shoji in 'Ashita'.  He is the husband of Yae.

Shirou Sano was born in 4 March 1955 in Yamanashi, Japan.  He graduated from the Shimane University Faculty of Education Middle School and the Shimane Prefecture Matsue Minami High School.  He later learnt oil painting in Nakamura Kou’s Oil Painting Workshop.  

In 1975, Shirou participated in ‘Shakespeare Theatre’ as one of the founding members.  In 1986, he made his debut in film by acting in Hayashi Kaizou’s movie – Yumemiruyou ni Nemuritai.  He is now an actor, film director as well as a musician.  

The following are some of Shirou’s major works in movies and TV Drama:

   Movies:

• Mainichi ga Natsuyasumi (1994)
• Godzilla 2000 Millennium (1999)

   TV Drama:

• Zutto Anata　ga Sukidatta (1992)
• Dare nimo Ienai (1993)

Source:

Shirou Sano's Image

Shirou Sano - Wikipedia

Interview with friends

To compare with Japanese friend, I had an interview with American friend. I also interviewed with Korean and French friends.

1. Aysha(American)

She mentioned three things. First, places(Hiroshima and Nagasaki) where the U.S dropped A-bombs was wrong. Because those places were quite big enough to be killed many citizens living in those cities. Plus, she said the first object to use A-bomb should scare people not kill them. So, it would have been better to use A-bomb in places where small people lived. Second,  although the U.S used A-bomb as self-defense, it never be used forever to innocent people. She felt sorry for innocent people who died from A-bomb. She also said the bomb should haven't been created in Manhattan Project. Suddenly I thought a question and asked her, "What do you think about this that thanks to A-bomb, lots of American peoples' lives could have been saved and the war time could have been shortened." She answered me back like this. "That's true if we only think about American lives, but if we think about whole world, less people would have been died in war. Nobody knows how many people would be died until it happens."

2. YoungKyoung(Korea)

As one of Koreans who knows well about Japanese colony for 36 years from 22. 8. 1910 ~ 15. 8. 1945, she mentioned Japanese was quite lucky to get sympathy from the world. This was because most of the world didn't notice Japan's atrocities to Korea and other Asia colony countries. Japan commited some horrific war crimes. Such as using of Korean women as sex slaves at military brothels during the World War Second, Changing people' names in Japanese and being forbidden using Hangul, which is Korean alpabet. She felt sorry about her ancestors.

3. Kolari(French)

She never expected this kind of film. At first, she thought documentary and during the movie, she expected the bomb is going to explode, but it happened at the end of the movie. She said this is quite good movie and said movie. She felt really sad when aya was waiting for her lover who joined the battle for his country and Hideo had to join the army on 13th and had to seperate with his lover. She told one very impressive idea that we feel sympathy these characters cause we'd been watching this movie more than 1 hour and it means we know them well. So when the bomb was dropping, impact is too strong compared to some news who died due to big catastrophe. Because we don't know those people.  

Review

‘Ashita’ is a very different bomb movie compared to those we have watched in class.  It depicts the life of Nagasaki people before the bomb was dropped, instead of the sufferings and effects of the bomb. 

In ‘Ashita’, the anti-war message is very strong.  Although almost everyone in the film had a very happy day on the 8 August, their happiness was not complete.  Their loved ones were not around because of the war: Shoji and Yae were holding a simply wedding ceremony and most of their friends could not come to share their joy; Tsuruko was giving birth to her first baby but her husband was not around.  Akiko even has to separate with her boyfriend as he received the Call from the military.  

All the happiness was obscured by the war, and the director also included some foreigners, the American David and the two Koreans, to show that the war not only destroying Japan, but their allies and enemies as well.  The director was tried to make the Japanese realized that they should not only have pity on themselves because the bombs were dropped on their land, they should also be sorry because their countries chose to participate in the WWII.  This idea of reminding the Japanese that they were both victim and assailant in WWII is also included in 'Gojira' (1954), while it came out because of the continuous testing of nuclear bomb, it also released radioactive fire to destroyed Tokyo.

The director also shows nihilism in the film – there is no hope, no happy ending, just like ‘I live in Fear’ (1955, Akira Kurosawa) and ‘The Man Who Stole the Sun’ (1979, Kazuhiko Hasegawa).  No matter how perfect the day was, there was no future, nothing good would be left, because the bomb would destroy them all.  The film ends with the footage of the atomic bomb and the date and time when the bomb exposed.  The director probably wanted to remind the audience what shown before were not all fabricated, those things did really happened.  The director did not include any after-bomb scenes, so that it allowed audience to imagine themselves what would happen to the characters.  This probably could bring forth a greater impact to the audience than filming an afterward. 

Through this film, the director also wanted the audience to treasure every chance we have today.  Just like Shoji’s stepfather said, “no one knows what’s going to happen tomorrow.  I should do what I can do today.”  The stepfather knew how to treasure because he once faced the death of his loved one, Shoji’s mother.  He understood that human’s life is so fragile that it can be gone in a sudden.  However, as Shoji was so young when his mother passed away, he did not learn the lesson.  If he knew there would be no tomorrow, he would not hesitate to tell Yae about his mother.  

Although the film ends in such a nihilism way, there is a scene which gives a little comfort to the audience.  It is the movie that Haruko watched.  The man said that even he only lived with his father for a week, he was still very happy because it was always his dream.  This refers to Yae and Shoji, even they only married for one day, and Tsuruko’, whose baby only one-day-old, they would still feel happy because their dreams fulfilled. 

Cast Profile - Nobuko Sendo

Nobuko Sendo is the youngest sister in 'Ashita'.  On 8 August 2010, her boyfriend, Hideo, received the government's letter to join the army.

 

Nobuko Sendo was born in Nagoya, Japan in 28 September 1969.  She graduated from the Tokyo Metropolitan Yoyogi High School.  In 2000, Nobuko left the showbiz temperately after she married Ogata Naoto.  She made her return in 2003, performing in ‘Ruten no Ouhi．Saigo no Koutei’.  

 

Nobuko had performed in a number of movies and TV dramas.  One of the most representative movies is ‘Kiryuin Hanako no Shogai’ (1982).  For TV Drama, it is the ‘Christmas Eve’ (1990).  Nobuko also won the New Actor Award in 1984 in the Japan Academy Prize, for her performances in ‘Sasame Yuki’ and ‘Hakujasho’.

Source : Nobuko Sendo's Artist Profile

              Nobuko Sendo - Wikipedia

 

Analysis of the movie

1. Emphasizing constrast events

-> The director wanted to show us happy scenes before dropping A-bomb to maximize sadness.
     Characters also hope there is another tomorrow for them. But actually it isn't.
     There are three happy scenes in the movie: childbirth, love and get married.


Childbirth

    Love

     Marriage

        
      and.......
   

   


 2. Symbolic scenes

Here, a fly is flying around the light and the fly soon died. It means nihilism indirectly by showing the fly.
Even though people try hard to live daily life, they all disapper in the air.

The moon is quite bright and it looks like to explode soon. We thought two interpretation. One is the director wanted to foreshadow that there will be an A-bomb soon. The other explanation is the director gave life to the moon and it expressed the sadness of tomorrow A-bomb dropping.

Two soldiers wanted food, but the owner of the store refused to give food to them. From this scene, the director shows we are not only the victim of the war, but also assailant to the other countries expecially Korea. So he pursued balanced idea in the movie.

American soldier needs food, but the owner of the shop refused to give food to the American soldier

cause America is the one who dropped bomb to Japan.

Main characters in the movie

      ( mother & her daughter Tsuruchan)

     

      <David & Tsuguchan>

   

      <Shoji & Yae>

      <Aki& Hideo>

Cast Profile - Kaho Minami

Kaho Minami is the bride Yae in 'Ashita'.

Kaho Minami was born in 20 January 1964 in Amagasaki, Japan.  She was graduated from the Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music.  While she was still studying in college, Kaho attended an audition in 1984 for a role in ‘Kayako no Tameni’.  She was chosen among 2000 competitors and made her debut.  Kaho not only active in the film industry, she also performed in various television series and stage drama.  

Kaho and Ken Watanbe

Kaho has two marriages.  She first married to Hitonari Tsuji, a Japanese musician, film-maker and novelist, in 1995 and had son.  However, the couple divorced in 2000.  In 2003, Kaho acted in a 2-hour-drama ‘Itan no Natsu’, together with the well-known Japanese actor Ken Watanabe.  They got married in December 2005. 

Awards that Kaho has won:

• 19^th Takasaki Film Festival – Best Supporting Actress
• Blue Ribbon Awards 1990 – Best Supporting Actress

Source : Kaho and Ken Watanabe' Image

             Kaho Minami - Wikipedia

Koreans in the Japanese military

00:00~00:03     Even Japanese are waiting in line.
00:03~00:08     If you do something behind our back, people will say bad things about you.
00:08~00:11     Please grant our wishes.
00:11~00:12     Are you sure about what you are saying?
00:12~00:14     Everyone wants to eat.
00:14~00:18     First of all, do you guys have money?
00:18~00:24     We came to Japan for the Emperor. We really don't have enough food.
00:24~00:27     Don't be confused.
00:27~00:30     Do you think you can get some food if you say like that?
00:38~00:41     It's rotten.
00:41~00:43     We can still eat it.
00:43~00:46     How can they treat us like that.
00:46~00:50     Why do they look down on us Koreans.
00:50~00:52     I know how you feel.
00:52~00:58     But what we have to do now is to survive.

 Starting in 1944, Japan started conscription of Koreans into the armed forces. All Korean males were drafted to either join the Imperial Japanese Army, as of April 1944, or work in the military industrial sector, as of September 1944. Before 1944, 18,000 Koreans passed the examination for induction into the army. Koreans provided workers to mines and construction sites around Japan. The number of conscripted Koreans reached its peak in 1944 in preparation for war. From 1944, about 200,000 Korean males were inducted into the army. The number of Korean military personnel was 242,341, and 22,182 of them died during World War II.

Source:
Korea under Japanese rule - Wikipedia

Images-Final Scenes

At the end of the film, peaceful scenes are showed constantly.

hanging out the wash, giving a child the breast, flowers, newly married couple,

and jus being printed family picture. All things are peaceful and hopeful.

At that time, Across a Catholic church, white spot, probably the very aircraft, comes in sight.

Peaceful sceneries is going on without any strange things

Girls parade is appeard, and we can find one girl whom we already know.

She looks up to see the sky and feels a little strange.

And then, suddenly, atomic bomb is dropped in Nagasaki.

This is sufficient to let us know what happens to family.

Familiar song which was repeated in film intensifies our grief,

because it reminds us of memories of their life.

Just a single violent, immoral, and cruel decision ruined thier life.

They were deprived of their dreams, futures, hopes, and their 'Ashita'.

Images-Soldier's Day (Life and death)

soldier comes to wedding ceremony of his friend.

When returning his unit, he finds condition of his colleague has worsend.

After for a while, he gets the phone call which infroms about the death of his colleague.

He and his colleagues holds a funeral for him.

He feels a kind of vain, so he goes to one prostitute.

In the room of prostitute, an insect rushes into the light and finally dies.

I thought a series of this process is jus like our own lives.