Barefoot Gen

Hadashi no gen, JP 1983 colour 83  min.
dir:  Mamoru Shinzaki
pro: Yasuteru Iwase, Keiji Nakazawa, Takanori Yoshimoto, Mad House, Gen Productions
sc: Keiji Nakazawa
ph: Kinichi Ishikawa
mus: Kentaro Haneda
ed: Harutoshi Ogata
voice: Issei Miyazaki, Masaki Kôda, Seiko Nakano, Takao Inoue, Yoshie Shimamura,  Takeshi Aono
dis: Mad House

 

Gen is the second youngest child in a poor Japanese family. The movie opens shortly before the dropping of the bomb, with the family hungry for food as their rations dwindle. Enduring this and other wartime hardships, the family is still happy, secure in their love for one another. Then the bomb drops, decimating Hiroshima and killing Gen’s family, save for Gen himself and his pregnant mother. Shortly after they get to relative safety, Gen’s mother goes into labor and Gen’s sister Tomoko is born. Gen and his mother then set about the business of survival.