Cinema Studies - Music

In regards to music, this film has a very cheerful background song from the beginning until the pika. We can hear the background music, the same rhythm; even though it changes to an acoustic version and whistling, it continues as the background. Here we can feel that the fishermen were really happy being together; even though they were fighting, the background music is still cheerful. After that, they had some problems because they couldn't get any fish before they had to go to the south (minami), the music changed turn sad. But when they decided to go to the south, the happy BGM came again, representing the new spirit of fishermen.

When they saw the pika, there was no BGM at all. It was all silence, and suddenly there was a very loud pikadon sound, causing everybody to become panicked. The fallout came along with a mysterious sprinkle background music which makes a clear image, that those fishermen did not really know what the 'mystery white dust' was.

At 00:53:48, the mysterious music, combined with the cutting scene of newspapers, shows more uncertainty about what was actually going on. When the Americans were inspecting the boat, the clock ticking BGM seems to represent the alert and hurry that they were forced to act with, as the possibility of radiation sickness would be increasing day by day. At 01:00:03, they were admitted to Tokyo hospital, and the sad BGM, seems to emphasize their separation from their family, friends, and relatives. When we see images of the hospital, a serene BGM can be heard, possibly to stress the atmosphere inside this place of healing.

When the fishermen were at the hospital, happy BGM can be heard on some occasions, such as the scene when the old lady was asking about makisushi (Japanese roll). At this time, they were happy and got their spirit back. Besides that, when one of the girlfriends came to visit one of them, there was a happy BGM as well. When one of them is happy, everybody else is happy. Nevertheless, when everybody else were getting better, Kuhoyama's condition worsened. When he was in a coma, there was a flashback of the image of the fallout. It can be interpreted that this flashback was a hint to the causal link of Kuhoyama's coma. Boats in the ocean were there with sad BGM, and at 01:33:05 he died in silence, with no music whatsoever. After that there were sounds of birds, and everybody started crying.Here the film tries to set a sombre mood in response to the death of Kuhoyama's. The song is a very sad song, probably not unlike those heard at the funerals of national heroes.

Cinema Studies - Special Effect

There were some special effects in this film, such as the image of the map of the fishing route.
This allowed us (and the fishermen) to know how far they have traveled, because when they were at the sea, all that can be seen is just an endless ocean of water. The date, as well, was to inform the viewer of how long the fishermen had been in the ocean, and how long it would take for the radiation sickness to spread in their bodies.

When they got back to the shore, people started to know about the bomb. At 00:48:13, there was cutting from scene to scene, about the doctor, newspaper, television, and so on. This is an emphasis on the fact that the knowledge of the bomb is already spreading among them.

At the end of the film, when Kuhoyama's wife took his ashes on the train, there was a cutting scene plus special effect that informs us the place (Odawara-Sizuoka-Yairon). Here, the same background music that has been played many times suddenly stopped, without fading out. At 01:43:18 people started singing a sad song in the minor scale (furosato) to pay respect to Kuhoyama. When this song slowly fades out, turning into a BGM, an image of a very calm ocean can be seen. Here I think the director tried to set the mood of the viewer, and he wants to show us how much Kuhoyama was respected by others.

Cinema Studies - Additions

If we hear carefully when they speak, the fishermen speak in non-standard Japanese dialects (方言ーhougen). I found that certain parts of the film were dubbed, especially on scenes with more formal conversations like the television interview.　From 00:09:25 I noticed that the movements of the lips do not match the syllables heard.　At 01:05:03, I also found that when there is a speech and interview, they dubbed the conversation with the standard Japanese, not the local dialects, to give a more formal and serious atmosphere.

The film also contains some criticisms for the US, who are understood to disrespect the Japanese, even when they are helping them recover from the two bombings. This criticism is contained in the scene when the fishermen refused to be taken to Tokyo on American airplanes, claiming that because the radiation sickness was America's fault, they should apologize first.

This film is, above all, a dramatic film. Employing dramatic truth, the love storyline caters to the entertainment value demands of the viewers.

Comparison with GOJIRA (1954)~~fiction and non-fiction

The Daigo Fukuryu Maru film might remind us with the film GOJIRA which was made in 1954, the year when the Bikini Atoll incident happened. GOJIRA, if you don`t know, is told as a creature that has been transformed into a huge destructive monster as the effect of bomb radiation. In fact, GOJIRA`s director, Ishiro Honda, made this film because he was inspired by the incident happened to the Daigo Fukuryu Maru fishing boat.

As for the storyline, actually the two films have different plot. But two films had same inspiration source, which is the effect of bomb testing. Or in other words, both films` message is the same, which is to show the feeling of anti-nuclear.

But the one of the obvious differences is that Daigo Fukuryu Maru is rather a non-fiction film, while GOJIRA is a fiction film.

What does fiction or non-fiction mean?

To be simple, non-fiction means true or real, and fiction means not true or might be imagination. Usually, these terms is more often used by written pieces, such as novels, stories, articles, news, etc.  Examples of fictional pieces are poems, plays, animations, animal stories, etc. While non-fictional pieces are newspaper stories, editorials, personal accounts, journal articles, legal documents, etc. Non-fiction based on true stories or real world.

Gojira, as I stated above, is a fictional story. This film link the true story about atomic bomb, but then created imaginative elements, which is not exist in the real world, such as the monster. Daigo Fukuryu Maru is rather a non-fictional film because it is based on true story. It is true that it is not exactly non-fiction because it still put elements of creative license, such as the love story between Harada and Kiyo-chan, but the plot of the story is more telling about historical experience that happened in the real life.