Presenter:
Nakata Hideo's horror film Ringu (1998) with its abundant allusions to the memories of atom bombings offers a contemporary example of the Japanese film genre called hibakusha cinema (films about the victims of the atom bomb). In the context of Fukushima, anti-nuclear activism, and President Obama’s historic visit to Hiroshima, Ringu’s atomic iconography acquires a historical and political dimension that harks back to the history of nuclear physics on the University of Chicago campus.