Minamata – A Sobering Gut-Punch Drama

There is much more underneath the surface of Minamata than is first perceived.

First, it is a film that seeks to tell the truth about the tragic events caused by the Chisso Corporation, a Japanese chemical manufacturer. They had been dumping large amounts of waste in nearby waterways causing mass accounts of “Minamata Disease” more commonly known as mercury poisoning, which affected multiple generations of Japanese people without consequence or penalty.

The second attraction of the film is the lens through which viewers are given an intimate look into this plight from the perspective of a photographer named Eugene Smith (Depp), notable for his pictures during WWII. In the twilight of his career amidst a life whose purpose has stalled, Smith seeks one last gasp of relevance with a culture that is attempting to evolve beyond his generation and through his journey to Minamata, Japan where self-discovery and reflection was accompanied by true horror through corporate ignorance. This poses a much deeper question that is never intentionally answered, instead meant to continue to ring in respective viewers’ minds well after the credits roll.

This push and pull from the central theme of Minamata both helps and hinders its overall mission as the film wants to highlight a national, multi-generational cause that marks a short-lived triumph of everyday people who are emboldened to speak out against injustice. This clashes with the limited scope of the film’s emotional linchpin, Smith, who through battling his own personal demons is slow to become ingrained in the central conflict. Overall, these two initial pathways lead to a similar conclusion, never becoming too powerful in order to overshadow the other. This is mostly why Minamata works despite its uncertainty in choosing one of these narratives.

Depp’s portrayal of Smith is accompanied by some solid performances from Bill Nighy, Hiroyuki Sanada, Akiko Iwase, Ryô Kase, and several others. These performances not only assist in enhancing the audience’s emotional connection through Smith’s journey but also humanize the larger picture of a very traumatic real-world impact which it ties together through its closing credits that highlight the many global catastrophes that have similarly occurred without true retribution. Depp’s performance is more subdued than first expected and is used expertly in a more reactionary manner that grows in confidence as the film progresses. This portrayal remains constrained to avoid distracting from the overall message, a decision that benefits both the actor’s performance and the film itself.

As the film leaves audiences with their thoughts, there is a quiet, simplistic beauty that permeates from Minamata which seeks to pose larger questions not meant to be answered in under two hours. Its clever ability to evoke these emotions in order to showcase a major injustice that not only occurred at a specific point in time but is continually being retold throughout many communities across the world up to this very moment.

In the end, Minamata successfully shows that reality is always capable of delivering a sobering punch to the gut when too much hope is just in reach in a subtle way. And yet, its message is one of hope that if an injustice is being suffered there should always be someone fighting against it no matter the cost.

still courtesy of Vortex Media

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