Barefoot Gen (はだしのゲン, Hadashi no Gen) is a two-part Japanese television special based on the manga of the same name by Keiji Nakazawa.
Contents
Plot
During the end of the war in Hiroshima, people in Japan were facing food shortages, and air bombing day and night, bur the government and its military powers, still continued the hopeless situation, and called young people to send them to battlefields. People, however, received letters that those young people had been lost. At that time in Japan, Daikichi was working as a picture drawer of Japanese footwear Geta. With his wife Kimie, Daikichi worked hard to raise their four little children.
Koji, the eldest brother, was nice and kind to his family. Eiko, the eldest sister, was weak in health, but doing daily chores to help her family. Gen, the naughty but cheerful kid, was also nice to his family. The youngest boy Shinji was a pampered child. Kimie was pregnant, so they were going to have a new family member. When it is time to harvest the wheat from the fields outside of town, the children look forward to making bread and noodles to eat. Daikichi always said to his children, "Grow up as strong as the wheat".
Cast
Ren Kobayashi as Gen Nakaoka, the main protagonist
Gaku Yamamoto as an elderly Gen Nakaoka, the narrator
Kiichi Nakai as Daikichi Nakaoka, Gen's father
Yuriko Ishida as Kimie Nakaoka, Gen's mother
Akiyoshi Nakao as Koji Nakaoka, Gen's elder brother
Asuka Ono as Eiko Nakaoka, Gen's elder sister
Yuki Imai as Shinji Nakaoka, Gen's younger brother, and Ryuta Kondo
TBA as Tomoko Nakaoka, Gen's baby sister
Masanobu Katsumura as Mr. Pak
Kenichi Yajima as a chief police officer
Hiroko Nakajima as Ume
Isamu Ichikawa as Officer Hamada
Kanako Fukaura as Hanako Yoshida
Takeshi Masu as Commander Saeki
Shinobu Tsuruta as Principal Tanaka
Hiroshi Okouchi as Mr. Numata
Sakura as Kikuyo
Susumu Kobayashi as a doctor
Takao Toji as a master of the house
Yōji Tanaka as a military policeman
Locations
Hiroshima Film Commission
Saga Pref Film Commission
Ibaraki Film Commission
Kagawa Film Commission
Miroku no Sato in Fukuyama, Hiroshima
Takeo, Jōsō, AP&PP Takahagi, Ishioka, Mitoyo
Marugame Basara Map
TV Shin-Hiroshima TSS TV Shin-Hiroshima
Saga Television Station Saga TV
Theme song
"Sen no Kaze ni Natte" ("A Thousand Winds")
Sing by Masafumi Akikawa
DVD and soundtrack
DVD and soundtrack were released on January 25, 2008, from Pony Canyon.