Rhapsody in August

Four grandchildren arrive for a summer visit to their grandmother Kane at the family country home near Nagasaki. They are tasked by their parents with convincing Kane to visit her brother in Hawaii, setting the scene for intergenerational tension and memory-work. The visit initiates a thread of how the past and present intersect for this multi-generational family.

The children spend a day in Nagasaki's urban landscape, visiting the spot where their grandfather was killed in 1945. They come to understand, for the first time, the emotional cost of the atomic bombing on ordinary families. Their perspective on Kane deepens as they question the morality of the weapons decision.

Meanwhile a telegram from Kane's American relatives arrives, offering their parents a job managing pineapple fields in Hawaii. The news introduces a hopeful, yet disruptive, front in the family story and foreshadows choices beyond Nagasaki. The grandchildren's visit anchors the tension between old and new loyalties.

Kane sends a letter to her Hawaiian relatives informing them of her husband's death in Nagasaki during the bombing. Her action raises concerns about how her grief will be received by the American family and how their expectations might affect Kane's memory. The letter also deepens the sense of distance between generations and places.

Kane's two children return from Hawaii to visit, and tensions surface as they fear their mother's letter will spark friction with their American relatives. The visit foregrounds issues of loyalty, memory, and the way postwar American influence shapes the family. The mood grows more strained as everyone contends with differing expectations.

Clark, Kane's nephew, travels to Japan to be with Kane for the memorial service honoring her husband who died in Nagasaki. His presence begins a personal reckoning with the bombing and the family's shared trauma. The trip deepens his connection to Kane and the Nagasaki community.

Clark is deeply moved by the Buddhist memorial ceremony as the Nagasaki community remembers the victims of the bombing. Kane and Clark reach a quiet reconciliation over the bombing's legacy, acknowledging pain without resolving all questions. The moment marks a fragile bridge between generations.

A new telegram informs Clark that his father, Kane's brother, has died in Hawaii. He must return home for the funeral, intensifying the sense of loss already threaded through the trip. The news shifts everyone toward changes in the family's present and future.

Clark departs for Hawaii to attend his father's funeral, leaving Kane with the grandchildren and the weight of unresolved memory. The distance between the Nagasaki family and their American relatives grows in the wake of the news. Kane's fragility deepens as separation increases.

Kane's memory falters as memories of her husband mingle with present fear. She begins laying out her late husband's clothes as if he will return, a haunting ritual that reveals the fragility of memory. The home becomes a theater for the past's persistence.

A brewing storm triggers Kane's anxiety, and she confuses it with another air raid. She uses folk remedies to shield the visiting grandchildren, bewildering her children and unsettling the visitors. The scene dramatizes how trauma resurges in the vulnerable mind.

As the storm intensifies, Kane believes the atmospheric disturbance resembles the Nagasaki blast and resolves to save her husband, still living only in memory. She takes her umbrella and walks toward Nagasaki to warn him, determined but increasingly disoriented. The journey embodies memory's pull against reality.

The grandchildren observe Kane's steadfast memory and begin to respect her resilience while questioning the morality of using atomic weapons. Their perspective shifts toward empathy and critical thinking about history, rather than simple judgment. The film closes with a tempered, multigenerational understanding.