Minamata (1971)

In the small town of Minamata in Kyushu, far from the metropolitan center, the fertilizer company Chisso (a leader of Japan’s chemical industry since the 1930’s) built a factory to take advantage of cheap labor in 1932 and commenced dumping mercury-filled wastewater into the nearby sea. Soon residents began exhibiting symptoms of a mysterious illness, a happening that would eventually develop into the worst case of environmental pollution in postwar Japan. Noriaki Tsuchimoto visits the patients and their families who sued Chisso and listens to their voices...