The best Hideyuki Tanaka’s drama movies

A young Japanese actress remembers her war childhood in Korea. Her father goes to fight, her baby sister Miko dies of typhoid, her beloved Korean maid Ohana is fired due to a mistake which could cost Chiko her life... By and by Chiko realizes that the country is being ruled by the Japanese and the Koreans are persecuted. When the war ends, the Koreans chase the Japanese rule and the roles change. Now Chiko's family is unwanted. But then the Russians come and this is the end. They have to burn all the pictures to avoid all suspicions... even Miko's picture. But when the Russians come to their house, they decide to flee over the 38th Parallel towards freedom. A group of men, women, children struggles along the mountains, led by the light of the Northern Star. Along the way they meet a Korean man, who is willing to help them to escape the Russian soldiers although his family was killed by the Japanese.

Many years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the survivors (called hibakusha in Japanese) are still physically and emotionally devastated by the event. Kuroi Ame ni Utarete tells the interlocking stories of a group of survivors who frequent Stand Akauma, a bar: Takeshi, who lost his entire family; Tomoko, a prostitute horribly burned in the bombing; her younger brother Junji, who scrabbles on the fringes of society; Eiko, a pregnant young woman whom he loves; and Yuri, another prostitute who is determined to secure a brighter future for her blind son.