Oppenheimer, the Best Picture winner, finally debuted in Japan on Friday, following an eight-month delay marked by a controversial grassroots marketing campaign and apprehensions about how its nuclear-centric theme would be perceived in the only nation to have experienced atomic bombing.
The film, directed by Christopher Nolan, emerged as the top winner at this month’s Academy Awards. It chronicles the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American physicist spearheading the development of the atomic bomb, and has amassed close to $1 billion in global box office earnings.
Despite its global success, Japan has been excluded from screenings despite being a significant Hollywood market. The country’s history is deeply intertwined with the devastating nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, resulting in over 200,000 casualties.
A big fan of Nolan’s films, Kawai, a public servant, went to see Oppenheimer on opening day at a theatre just a kilometre from the city’s Atomic Bomb Dome. “I’m not sure this is a movie that Japanese people should make a special effort to watch,” he added.
Signs displayed at the entrances of certain Tokyo theatres cautioned viewers about the film’s portrayal of nuclear tests, which may evoke the devastation caused by atomic bombs.
Initially excluded from Universal Pictures’ global release plan for Oppenheimer, Japan eventually secured distribution through Bitters End, a Japanese distributor specializing in independent films. The release date was scheduled after the Oscar awards ceremony.
Before the film’s premiere, atomic bomb survivor Teruko Yahata expressed her anticipation to Reuters, stating her hope that it would reignite discussions surrounding nuclear weapons. Now 86 years old, Yahata also mentioned feeling empathetic towards the physicist responsible for the bomb. This sentiment was shared by 19-year-old student Rishu Kanemoto, who watched the movie on Friday.
