After releasing to financial and critical success, Christopher Nolan’s historical epic Oppenheimer is returning to theaters. With this also comes a theatrical debut in Japan.
Oppenheimer, based off the book American Prometheus, follows the events of the Manhattan Project, as J. Robert Oppenheimer and other physicists work to create the atomic bombs that were eventually used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki towards the end of World War II.
While the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were never explicitly shown, due to Nolan wanting to keep strictly to Oppenheimer’s own perspective, the film still came with a lot of debate in Japan, due to the sensitive topic.
In defense of not depicting the bombing in the film, Nolan told NBC that, “he learned about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the radio — the same as the rest of the world.”
Japanese distributor Bitters End confirmed that the movie would come to Japan, stating that the release comes “following months of thoughtful dialogue associated with the subject matter and acknowledging the particular sensitivity for us Japanese.”
Bitters End also stated that Nolan “created a singular cinematic experience that transcends traditional storytelling and must be seen on the big screen.”
“We invite the audience to watch the film with their own eyes when it comes to Japan.”
While an amount of the success of Oppenheimer is due to the internet phenomenon known as Barbenheimer, which mashed Greta Gerwig’s Barbie with Nolan’s Oppenheimer, the Japanese took the trend to be making light of the 200,000 deaths between Hiroshima and Nagasaki. #NoBarbenheimer started trending in Japan, throwing the release into question, eventually resulting in Warner Bros. Japan apologizing, according to Hollywood Reporter.
Bitters End also released Churchill biopic Darkest Hour, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza in Japan.
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