Oppenheimer finally premieres in Japan after winning nearly every major accolade around the globe
Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer finally premiered in Japan on Friday, March 29. This comes after more than eight months of the movie's release in the US and other markets.
The delay in the film's release in Japan is attributed to the historical context and the effect of the war. Japan was bombed by the atomic bomb that was created by Robert J. Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy in the film).
Being such a sensitive topic to the Japanese population, the film remained unreleased in Japan until Friday. It finally premiered in the Asian country this week, leading to mixed reactions from the crowd.
Oppenheimer became one of the most important films of 2023, taking the world by storm both with its box office numbers as well as critical reception, ultimately sweeping most major accolades, including seven Oscars, with top prizes for stars Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. and director Christopher Nolan.
Oppenheimer focused on the internal struggles of the man behind the carnage but not the carnage itself
The Christopher Nolan film was heavily based around the character of Robert J. Oppenheimer, whose internal struggles after he managed to build a weapon of infinite capacity became the chief focus of the film and its resolution.
While the destruction caused by the atomic bomb was omitted from the film, it still depicted some moral dilemma in the man.
But omitting such a crucial part of the story from the screen may not appease the Japanese population, as already pointed out by former Hiroshima Mayor Takashi Hiraoka, who reportedly criticized the film for leaving out the impact the bomb caused on the people of Japan. Hiraoka has also said that this gives a different context to the atomic bomb, which implies that it was created to save the American people, not destroy others.
The film has still managed to impress most of the globe and is now also open to the Japanese public, who will definitely form an opinion of their own about the same.
Oppenheimer was based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. The film chronicles the life of the famed scientist, from his early years as a student to his invention of the atomic bomb and everything that came after. Made on a budget of approximately $100 million, the film grossed over $964 million globally. It is arguably the most successful film of 2023.
The movie is available for streaming on Peacock.