Cherry Blossoms (2008)
(Kirschblüten)
Country: GER
Technical: col 127m
Director: Doris Dörrie
Cast: Elmar Wepper, Hannelore Elsner, Aya Irizuki
Synopsis:
An ageing Bavarian couple is sundered by bereavement and the surviving spouse journeys to Japan to realize an unfulfilled dream of visiting Mount Fuji.
Review:
A sensitive film about familial relationships, the generational gap and so on, it wrongfoots its audience cleverly in its first half, in fact a homage to Tokyo Story in miniature, before re-visiting the territory of Lost in Translation in its second. What transpires ultimately, however, is far more Zen than Coppola's whimsical meeting of lost souls, as it hinges on the transcendental powers of Butoh dancing, a kind of slow performance art-cum meditation based around the contemplation of shadows. The film is at times over-deliberate in its construction but the final appearance of the mountain swathed in snow is worth the wait.
(Kirschblüten)
Country: GER
Technical: col 127m
Director: Doris Dörrie
Cast: Elmar Wepper, Hannelore Elsner, Aya Irizuki
Synopsis:
An ageing Bavarian couple is sundered by bereavement and the surviving spouse journeys to Japan to realize an unfulfilled dream of visiting Mount Fuji.
Review:
A sensitive film about familial relationships, the generational gap and so on, it wrongfoots its audience cleverly in its first half, in fact a homage to Tokyo Story in miniature, before re-visiting the territory of Lost in Translation in its second. What transpires ultimately, however, is far more Zen than Coppola's whimsical meeting of lost souls, as it hinges on the transcendental powers of Butoh dancing, a kind of slow performance art-cum meditation based around the contemplation of shadows. The film is at times over-deliberate in its construction but the final appearance of the mountain swathed in snow is worth the wait.
(Kirschblüten)
Country: GER
Technical: col 127m
Director: Doris Dörrie
Cast: Elmar Wepper, Hannelore Elsner, Aya Irizuki
Synopsis:
An ageing Bavarian couple is sundered by bereavement and the surviving spouse journeys to Japan to realize an unfulfilled dream of visiting Mount Fuji.
Review:
A sensitive film about familial relationships, the generational gap and so on, it wrongfoots its audience cleverly in its first half, in fact a homage to Tokyo Story in miniature, before re-visiting the territory of Lost in Translation in its second. What transpires ultimately, however, is far more Zen than Coppola's whimsical meeting of lost souls, as it hinges on the transcendental powers of Butoh dancing, a kind of slow performance art-cum meditation based around the contemplation of shadows. The film is at times over-deliberate in its construction but the final appearance of the mountain swathed in snow is worth the wait.