6 h 9 oct. 2021 ans - MINAMATA Media Coverage Andrew Levitas Social Media

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FROM LEGANERD, ITALY

[Translated from the original Italian using Google Translate]

Minamata, the film review on the environmental disaster in Japan
The review of Minamata, the movie in which Depp plays W. Eugene Smith the photojournalist who told the story of mercury poisoning in Japan.

BY LAURA DELLA CORTE

“Photography is a powerful means of expression. Used appropriately has a great power of improvement and knowledge; used incorrectly it can ignite worrying fires.” We thus begin the review of Minamata, a small masterpiece, in which Johnny Depp unsheats one of his most intent and "adult" performances. Minamata is a frank and sincere film with a story necessary to tell how communities can resist overbearing corporations and how journalists who dedicate themselves to truthful news can help them.

The drama finds the photographer W. Eugene Smith in his declining years, drunk, depressed, almost unapproachable to work together and obviously ripe for redemption in Hollywood style. Apparently by chance, he finds himself making friends with the Japanese-American Aileen (Minami Hinase) who warns him of an environmental atrocity in Japan for which he could do something, if he chooses to wake up from his grumpy and self-indulgent boredom.

In the coastal city of Minamata, on the southwest coast of Japan, the Chisso company dumped mercury waste into the water, which poisoned the fish. Men, women and children who ate them had horrible disfigurement.

The truculent and impulsive Smith then breaks into his editor's office (a direct role with an American accent for Bill Nighy) asking to be sent to cover the story and his exasperated boss is convinced. From there, Smith finds a community that treats him with respect and kindness, although some are suspicious of a cheeky stranger who could simply make things worse and drive away a powerful employer who could rebel against any deal.

Of course, the professional knows that photos of sick children, handled with care and tact, will give the biggest turn to his career but not in the end the purpose of his journey will change. The photographer will in fact enter the annals for a particular photo, which the broken-hearted parents were initially reluctant to grant: Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath, the black and white Pietà-style photograph of a mother cradling her sick daughter in a traditional Japanese bathtub. Director Andrew Levitas offers us a contextless look at this challenging image at the beginning of the film and builds its eventful composition like its exciting ending.

Perhaps at first glance this premise may seem a bit superficial, but the film emphasizes a type of journalism that is at the service of the people it portrays.

And remember a time when the environmental debate was about pollution and not climate change, even if that problem has not disappeared at all. During the credits Minamata ends with a list of grotesque and often unpunished "spills" including Bhopal, Deepwater Horizon and others. Perhaps these are microcosmic crimes and our use of fossil fuels is the broader and most global problem. In any case, Minamata is a discreet reminder of what still needs to be done. The trailer published on YouTube.

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