Today, let's talk about the movie "Minamata Disease".
The film title Minamata (2020), alias Minamata / Poisonous Water Exposure (Hong Kong) / Bad Water Truth (Taiwan).
As of the 1970s, the "eight major public nuisance events in the world" were selected. Refers to the eight worldwide sensational environmental pollution incidents.
They are the Yokkaichi asthma incident in Belgium and Japan, the rice bran oil incident in Japan, the Minamata (yǔ) disease incident in Japan, the Osteopathy incident in Japan, the Maas Valley smog incident, the London smog incident in the United Kingdom, the photochemical smog incident in Los Angeles in the United States, and the Donora incident in the United States. Among them, Japan accounted for four-eighths, and the island country, as always, has inherited the courage of pulling everyone to be buried with them.
This "Minamata Disease" exposes the horrific scandal of Japan's "Minamata Disease" through one of the most famous photojournalists of all time, W. Eugene Smith.
Minamata disease refers to the nervous system disease caused by the consumption of fish and shellfish contaminated by methylmercury sewage in Minamata Bay, manifested as neurasthenic syndrome, unsteady gait, convulsions, paralysis, etc. Some kidney damage occurs .
It first occurred in 1956 near Minamata Bay in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, so this strange disease was named after the local place.
Eugene Smith (1918-1978) is considered a master of contemporary photojournalism.
Smith's photography career started at Newsweek and entered Life magazine at the age of 19. Later, he fell out with Life magazine several times because of different interests.
Between his return to Life in 1946 and his resignation in 1954, he completed approximately 58 photography projects. The International Center of Photography in New York established the Eugene Smith Award for his faith in human nature.
He created some of the most shocking photographs in the history of warfare, his images of social injustice that deeply affected a generation.
His photographs of Minamata disease in Japan are among his most famous works.
The picture above is the original photo of "Tomoko Bathing",
The picture below is a still from "Tomoko Takes a Bath".
In 1971, 53-year-old Eugene Smith recklessly reported on the detoxification incident of Chisso Co., Ltd., the largest chemical company in Japan.
Chisso Co., Ltd. is one of the four major consortiums in Japan. From 1932 to 1968, its chemical factory directly discharged a large amount of mercury-containing wastewater, causing thousands of people to be sick, disabled or even killed.
Eugene Smith spent three and a half years interviewing and shooting, taking a large number of photos that shocked the world. One of the most famous photos is the above picture "Sophon Bathing".
The film also spent a lot of pen and ink to express the shooting process of this famous photo. The more detailed it is, the more frightening it is.
The film stars the character actor Johnny Depp as the master photographer, who brings his personality to the fore.
Depp's appearance is too subversive, which is very different from the previous smoky makeup orchid finger. If I hadn't checked the cast list, I wouldn't have dared to confirm that he was the male lead.
There is a cut-out scene in the film.
It featured Eugene Smith singing Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" in 1971.
The song was actually written in 1973 and released on Bob Dylan's 14th album Planet Waves in 1974.
After the Minamata disease incident was known to the international community, Chisso Corporation and the Japanese government began to hypocritically apologize and compensate.
But they did not really want to apologize or compensate, but to raise the standard for identifying Minamata disease. In addition to hand and foot paralysis, patients must have two or more symptoms such as narrowing of the visual field to be recognized. The harsh identification conditions have greatly reduced the number of patients identified. Not only did the Japanese government get good numbers, it also eased financial pressure.
This kind of operation is not the only one. In the recent Japanese epidemic, people once again witnessed the rude operation of the Japanese government. They have raised the criteria for the identification of new crown patients, and those who do not meet the criteria will not be included in the statistics. The number of infections and deaths have doubled.
From the Minamata disease incident, it can be seen once again that people who have a good life have always had small gifts but no righteousness.
Not only did they occupy four seats in the world's eight major public nuisance events, but after the 1970s, they continued to operate continuously. The most recent is the Fukushima nuclear waste water dumping incident, which we have all experienced.
When they were dealing with the problem seriously, the craftsmen pretended to be deaf and dumb, and others drew a cartoon to satirize them, and they immediately jumped and wanted to break the world high jump record.
Anyway, the bow is over, and there will naturally be a group of people who will wash the ground for them and bow their craftsmanship.
The movie "Minamata Disease" showed Eugene Smith's behavior of exposing Japan's ugly face very well, and the actors' performances were also superb and in place, leading the audience to view this series of human tragedies from an outsider's point of view.
The only regret is that there has not been a reasonable result in the handling of the incident so far, and the government and enterprises have shied away and bowed to the end.
The Japanese government will never admit its mistake. This attitude of pulling people all over the world to be buried with them casts a shadow over the film and has also become a cancer of human civilization. Even if they become the public enemy of all mankind, they have no guilt. As long as the American master thinks they are still useful, they will not admit their mistakes.
The master reporter bravely took risks,
Uncover the cancer of human civilization.
This is the distribution center for hardcore movie fans, welcome to pay attention to the public number: Miaokan Film and Television
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