Program Note
A woman who can't even step out of the house, a man who trembles while holding his head from a noise he hears from far away, and a child who groans and has nightmares every night. The incendiary bomb reduced the city to ashes, and people died in droves or were left alone. The three characters who suffered from trauma accidentally start living together, eating and sleeping in the same house, but it is a long way from expecting a normal daily life. Shadow of Fire is set in the devastated Japanese society immediately after World War II and focuses on depicting the inner lives of humans destroyed by fear and loss. The faces captured in close-ups seem to be filled with anger and fear, and the characters trapped in the square frames themselves appear to be suffering from claustrophobia. Only the young boy watches the whole situation with wide eyes, but in a world where it is difficult to have even the slightest hope, the weight that survivors must bear is not so easily eased. (CHA Hanbi)