Barefooot Gen is a 1983 Japanese anime war drama based of the Japanese manga of the same name. The film revolves around two young brothers and the events that unfold surrounding the bombing of Hiroshima as well as thee experiences with it. Barefoot Gen is a tragic story about the destruction caused by war and the harrowing aftermath but also how people can overcome this hardship.
The film starts with japan being bombed showing that Japan is slowly losing the war with the Americans firebombing them as they work on the atomic bomb. The film then shows the air raid that goes on with their main character Gen and his younger brother Shinji coming out of the shelter with their sister Eiko and there mum Kimie, they are presented as a hungry family that must work to survive with there dad working on the fields. Hiroshima is full of military man these soldiers have pride as they are celebrated as they go off to war witch influences Gen and Shinji singing a song about it. People are shown lining up for soup rations which shows how badly the war has affected Japan, however Gen and Shinji don’t have ration stamps and are hungry as they see a fight break out between the starving people. Throughout the film Gen and Shinji never quite grasp the reality of the situation as they think it’s bad that people are fighting over soup, there is a real heavy sense of sadness to the film as the mother is heavily pregnant and with the historic information of the film the upcoming story of the film will be sad.
There is a light-hearted feel to the first half of the film as the brother fight over food, this is set in the backdrop of WW2 with food rationing where the family must give up their food for the baby that’s coming. The film has an interesting tone of light-heartedness with a backdrop of sadness as they are excited about feeling the babby moving which is set against them living in a country that is economically devastated. The air-raid sirens and lights then come on as they all get up and go into the bunkers with people crying and screaming, there lives in the shelters are grim, there is a sick irony to the film as Gen believes that a bomb won’t land on Hiroshima as their town is boring. The war is very much palpable in the film as the planes shoot up buildings and people. Again, there is a sick irony in the film as towns around Hiroshima have been attacked and they don’t understand why they have never been bombed; this is further shown with the imagery of the spy plane as they live on constant fear. Kimie who is about to give birth has server malnutrition which worries everyone.
Gen and Shinji then try and steal a carp and give it to their mum whilst playing war calling themselves Sargent and commander. They try and steal carp from a pond and get caught, at first the guy is angry, but they explain its for their mum and he lets them keep it. There mother feels great shame for relying on food and a father that makes their children put there mum first. The film has a very anti-war theme running through it, as their dad says the reason japan hasn’t surrendered is because the government is stupid and crazy for letting the war continue. His son says that people will call him a coward, but he says he doesn’t care because standing up for what you believe take courage which again links into the anti-war them of the film, as well as this Kimie feels guilt for being pregnant. Shinji asks to suck on the fish bones after his mum is done with them which makes her cry causing Gen to hit him, in these dire stations nobody has any food and Shinji due to his age doesn’t understand the situation, Gen on the other hand odes and hits his brother as a result.
The guy whose pond they stole the fish form come to their house saying that its fine showing that even in bad times there is good people, they then get found out and have conversation with there parents who are proud of them, and they embrace and are rewarded with a piece of cake. The film then showcases the events of the plane flying to drop the bomb, with the voice of the polit being a cold factual and detached combined with dark imagery of the pane flying. This is followed by a level of normality and stillness as the family goes on with their lives with is interrupted by the siren. In that moment time stops and everything is silent, and they then get all clear. The film then shifts to the American perspective of the pilot dropping the bombing which is shown from a detached neutral perspective. There is then a moment of eerie silence as the bomb is released and suddenly explodes almost sounding like a Sci-Fi weapon. There is then this black and white imagery as time slows down, and all the sound is cut out and everything becomes silhouetted, and time stops. Then suddenly the blast hits. The background is sped up with a blur of colour as still images of people are shown burning up and disintegrated in an instant, there clothes skin hair and eyes becoming nothing with animals being destroyed.
The entire town is then destroyed with buildings being sucked up and ripped apart piece by piece. Everything them collapses into rubble as trees are uprooted and entire buildings destroyed as lots of people die in the process including Shinji, Kimie, Daikishi and Eiko. Everything and everyone are blown away and turned into a formless shape that becomes the mushroom cloud. Gen survives, at first, he doesn’t understand what happened until he tries to help a dead person and realises the horror of the situation, as he sees the absolute devastation of the city causing him to have a mental breakdown. The city is left incomplete ruins, as Gen coms across the victims of the blast looking like zombies as they pass him, there burnt bodies are shown with torn cloths and some covered in shards of glass. Gen then comes home to find his house on fire with Kimie trying to rescue their family who are trapped and burning alive under the burning collapsed house. Danikchi make them leave and Gen under his father’s orders gets his mum and the baby to safety as they burn to death. Kimie suffers a mental breakdown due to this and Gen leads her away with assistance from there neighbour, as everyone looks and acts like an irritated zombie trying to get away by swimming in the river.
Kimie is about to give birth as Gen runs off to try and find a doctor but find no one in the irradiated wasteland. He ends up bringing supplies as they do it themselves as she gives birth to a baby girl. Gen washes her and talks to her as he shouts to his dead dad and brother about the baby crying as he does it showcases the emotional brutality of the situation as they have a very happy situation in a very sad setting. Black Rain then starts to fall as radioactive material is still in the atmosphere. Black rain is rain that happens during a nuclear fallout as its poised with radiation. The town is then covered with radioactive rain as most people are dead or dying not knowing the effects of radiation as they give them contaminated water by accident and they die, however despite everything his childlike innocence has a sense of honour to him. There is an element of light-heartedness in the film when Gen finds people with rice asks were they got it go to find it juxtaposed with him running into a truck which is carting off dead bodies. The imagery of the bodies being rounded up on trucks is horrifying and gory. There body parts come off as Gen doesn’t understand that their desensitisation is needed for the job as he feels like his in hell.
There is some great symbolism in the film with their mother cradling two children in the wreckage of a bath statue showcases the destruction of people lives and society, as people try and dig the maggots off their skin. Kimie tires to get help for her baby and at first comes across a dead woman with her baby still suckering on her. She then comes across a woman telling her to kill it, but she can’t kill the child and feeds her as her baby died. As this goes on Shin comes across an ill man dying of radiation poisoning as he is balding, defecating, and vomiting blood as they take him to hospital as the doctors tell them there dead as they are all horrified by the destruction of the bomb. Narration then comes in stating that the bomb instantly claimed over 100,000 lives but then ration killed tones of people over the years afterwards giving people leukaemia and cancer. People burn the dead bodies whilst praying in traditional Japanese way showcasing traditional elements of the culture, as Gen cries over the devastation of the bomb as he finds spoiled rice that’s burnt in an ironic twist of fate but after some digging, he finds white rice. Everybody talks especially Gen about death in a symbolic way as they name as Gen and his mum’s name her child Tomoko. Gen ends up getting radiation poisoning as he goes bald, as this is happening the US issued a warning for Japan to surrender after the dropping of the Hiroshima bomb and due to the fact, they didn’t a bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, and they eventually surrender.
Gen digs up skulls as they think about their dead family and mourn, as they find out that japan has surrounded which deeply effects Kimie who is deviated being an adult and injured by Japanese culture, society, and pride but Gen doesn’t care being both to young to fully understand but also rejecting any form of pride and is just happy to be alive and that war is over. A boy named Ryuta tries to steal rice, but Gen catches him, chases after him and beats him up, since he looks and acts like Shinji, they let him have some rice. They decide to take Ryuta in who cries out in gratitude, as the next day Gen and Ryuta go out looking for work to get food as the next day Gen and Ryuta go outlooking for work to get food as Tomoko is suffering from malnutrition. Gen and Ryuta get a job looking after a bad-tempered man called Seiji who was injured during the atomic bomb as worms and flies surround him. At first, he is a dick to them, but they still help him out by cleaning away flies and maggots as the wife of the family wants him gone but her husband wants him to stay.
The guy is a dick to them but after he gets hit by Gen, he gets a wakeup call and his moved that someone had human contact with him as everyone else treated him like a rotten piece of meat. Form this he finds a new lease on life and starts to learn how to paint with his mouth, as they get paid a lot for working a miracle on his brother and they buy imported milk form America. They show the milk to their mum excited, but their mother is distraught as the baby has died in an incredibly harrowing and brilliantly effective scene as she cries along with the kids who are crying but also angry that she couldn’t have waited. They burn her body ritualistically as Gen has flashbacks of his brother, sister and dad dying and how he couldn’t save anyone as he starts to cry, Gen is in a bad mood as Ryuta tries to cheer him up and Eiko repairs clothing as she looks at him sadly. Gen is depressed as Ryuta find wheat grows which cheers him up and give them hope. This causes a flashback in which his dad saying the ta life survives as the hair on the top of his head comes back symbolically showing this as he makes a promise to his father to never give up and make him proud. Gen later fulfils his promise to Shinji by making a boat and puts a Japanese flag on it before he sails it off with a lantern inside of it. His mum prays so that spiritually his soul can pass on linking into the themes of the film of Japanese mysticism as the boat joins the other lanterns again linking into mystic elements of the as the lanterns are like souls passing into the afterlife.
Barefoot Gen is a harrowing showcasing of the destruction caused by the atomic bomb as how through the horrors of war people and humanity can still strive, live, and flourish.
