Still, while much emotion is on show in the film -- and also a number of scenes that look to be geared at getting viewers to reach for tissues or handkerchiefs -- I actually ended up feeling more emotionally distanced from what unfolded on screen than I had expected to be. Perhaps it didn't help that there was a "stagey" quality to the proceedings. Actually though, I reckon that the biggest problem I had with the film was how much it took place in a veritable vacumn which not only privileged the interactions between mother and son above all others but also opted to exclude mention of any bloodshed and atrocities wreaked by Japanese people in the days, months and years leading up to the bombing of Nagasaki (and Hiroshima three days earlier).