Barefoot Gen

Barefoot Gen is the semi-autobiographical retelling of an atomic bomb survivor from Hiroshima and his experience right before and after the bomb’s detonation. This review will cover some spoilers, as I believe that talking about this film also warrants discussing some of the specific events that the characters experience.

In preparation for this review, I also read Ore wa Mita, the strictly autobiographical manga version of this story that came before the manga this movie takes from. Ore wa Mita is much more focused on the after-effects of the bomb on the life of the author’s family… Barefoot Gen, however, is strictly all about the horrors following the bomb’s drop in a much more direct style.

Gen is a much more realized character compared to the original one-shot. He’s much more kiddy-like, a fair portrayal for a character supposed to be 6 years old at the time. This portrayal can be a bit too much at some points, with our protagonist acting like a brat in front of some horrible situations, causing a tonal imbalance. While a bit annoying, this kind of behavior is also much to be expected from a literal child, so I’m more inclined to give some slack to this characterization’s frictions.

The movie could be divided into two different halves (though the latter one occupies two-thirds of the film). The first one covers the days before the bomb, as a sort of prelude showcasing the hardships of living in wartime. This prelude also explicitly indicates the author’s feelings towards war. Keiji Nakazawa has always been very vocal about the horrors of nuclear weapons and war (to the point of sending a letter to Obama about his speech about decreasing the use of such weapons) and this first part explicitly talks about his own anti-war stance, occupying a sort of self-insert character that was very much changed from the original Ore wa Mita. I don’t mind it and find it pretty laudable, considering the nature of this work.

After one point, suddenly, we get one of the most harrowing scenes I’ve seen in a long time. A very explicit and very gruesome depiction of the victims in the radius of the A-Bomb plus the destruction it caused to the entire city. It showcases how Gen’s survival was pretty much a matter of pure luck in a single moment and some of the injuries that the not-so-lucky survivors of the immediate aftermath suffered from… and how they didn’t survive.

There’s a very gruesome and distressing scene about Gen trying to save his family and the psychological aftermath of watching such a scene. It’s pure despair, watching two helpless people (a kid and a pregnant woman) trying to lift an entire roof that’s crushing and burning some kids. The way that the mother reacts towards the inevitability of watching almost their whole family die immediately is sadly too understandable, yet no less disturbing because of it. It’s a showcase of pure distress in the rawest sense.

Barefoot Gen is not purely a sob story or a tale woven for the shock value. It also has moments of hopefulness amongst the tragedy, people you meet in these dire circumstances that aim to help however they can. There’s a very sweet scene between the main mother and another survivor who helps her with their new baby that’s rather bittersweet.
Later on, there’s a secondary plot about a victim of the bomb who tries to go back on his passion for art. This feels more like a representation of the author’s struggles to become an artist after the bombing. This section, while a bit inspiring, also drags out a little bit too much and feels like a harsh drop in the gravity of the situation when compared to what came beforehand. Though, it’s understandable, it’s hard to top a nuclear bomb.

The ending, though, feels bittersweet yet completely coherent with the overall themes of the work. The bomb has taken so much from these people and will still take more as time goes on. It’s a curse that will linger on the family and the city’s inhabitants for as long as they can survive, yet they still need to move on. That’s the only way they can ever try to heal from these burns that will never go away, a poison that sadly has seeped into the ground where they take root.

Barefoot Gen is one of the most effective anti-war stories, a showcase of how war can develop horrors beyond comprehension that can ruin the lives of more than 200.000 innocent civilians. It’s a story that most of us should heed in the turbulent times that are coming over with the recent shifting in global powers.