Truly Dreadful Film

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

"Kirschblüten - Hanami" or "Cherry Blossoms - Hanami" is a German film from 2008, which means it will have its 10th anniversary 2 years from now. The writer and director is Doris Dörrie and this film (among others) turned her into what many probably consider Germany's most influential female filmmaker of the last decades. Her cast here includes E. Wepper, Elsner, Uhl, Minichmayr, Brückner and a handful other German actors that are somewhat known here in Germany, plus a couple Japanese actors because of the setting. The first third is about an old married couple (from Southern Germany) reuniting with their children in Berlin, but somehow not really succeeding in making a connection, especially the man. The scene when they struggle with the train ticket machine is possibly the most entertaining and it shows that they just don't fit there.The first third of the film ends with the old woman's death and the remaining two thirds is about the husband taking a deep insight into the lifelong dream of his wife, namely going to Japan and becoming part of an ancient Japanese tradition. A lot of the film has to do with the culture clash between Rudi Angermeier (Wepper) and Japanese culture and tradition, how he goes on a journey into a world that is entirely new to him. Dörrie has made the movie "Erleuchtung garantiert" before this one (almost a decade) and very recently she made "Grüße aus Fukushima", which shows how strong Dörrie's connection to this Asian country must be. In my opinion, the quality is on par with the chronology. "Erleuchtung garantiert" is the best from the trio, "Kirschblüten - Hanami" is certainly inferior and "Grüße aus Fukushima" is easily the worst and a huge mess.About this one here, I think visually, in terms of sets, cinematography and costumes, these areas is where it shines the most. Wepper is also pretty good, even if the awards recognition may have been a bit too much. There are better (German) lead performances from that year such as Matthias Brandt for example. The film itself has a couple pretentious moments and feels like style over substance on some occasions too, but I still feel it was a creative achievement, even if it should have been kept more essential at 105 minutes instead of over two hours. I would say it is indeed one of the best German films from 2008, but not among the very best and also not among the best from Europe. I love Japan a lot as well and, even if I recommend the watch, I would call it a bit of a lost opportunity and it is kinda sad how Dörrie's Japan-themed films got worse and worse over the years.

The life that people live here around, has a lot to do with the following verses of a famous and beautiful poem by Louis Aragon."Noting is taken for granted to man. Neither his strength Neither his weakness neither his heart. And when he believes that he opens his arms, his shadow has the shape of a cross. And when he believes that he seized his happiness, he smashes it. His life is a strange and a painful divorce.There is no happy love"Note particularly: "His life is a strange and painful divorce"While Trudi was alive, Rudi made no effort to "bring his soul close to hers" (I do not know how to say it otherwise), I mean they were married, loved each other, were faithful, but "their souls were not married."After Trudi dies, Rudi realizes this, and is desolate.He finds a way to "help souls to get close to each other" through a fortuitous encounter with a girl who is a street performer. This girl has more of an angel than someone of flesh and blood, because during the relationship with Rudi, completely free from any interest - she is a homeless, living under a tarp in a public garden, and is apparently alone in the world - she gives to Rudi, as a present, the art of dancing with the shadows, with the ephemeral and with people who are no longer among the people alive. In other words, she gave to Rudi, for free, a key which may help Trudi to rediscover and "save his soul."Imagine, to find an angel in the midst of the madness that is the life in Tokyo!On the other hand, Trudi loved Butoh but could never practice it, because of the total disinterest of Rudi and this was certainly one of the sorrows that she carried with her when she died.Rudi takes that key and succeed to meet Trudi in some ineffable dimension, where she is now.The film is really beautiful. Everything and everybody are perfect. It made me weep a lot because of the atmosphere of "painful divorce" in which plunged the life of Rudi and Trudi, and because of the beauty of Rudi's relationship with the angel of Butoh.

I saw this movie at my local video store and I didn't know anything about it, only rented it because I like cherry blossoms (Don't ask why, I really rented because of the name of the movie). At first I thought the movie was Japanese but when I found out it was German I was kind of surprised and pleased because I like German films. All I can say this movie is extremely melancholic, it deals with grief, and a guilty husband who didn't fulfill his wife's last wish. The scenery, both in Germany and Japan is beautiful. The story moved me, I was sad when the movie ended, and left me with kind of an emptiness, it made me feel like you're alone in the world and I kind of hated the poor man.

I think it was for me a sublime movie experience. I tells about many things: lack of communication between generations, the passing of life and the necessity to cherish it while it lasts, the cultural differences and similarities between Germany and Japan. It also describes how we often do not know well even those closest to us. In the beginning the old couple seems so boring, one-sided and uninvolving, boy does it change as the film unravels. The film is very well written, directed and acted. Also one of the best, wholest descriptions of the current life in Japan I ever saw on celluloide. I loved the character of the young girl in Japan, her wonderful, delicate dignity in the face of the horrors of her lonely life. The man entered her life by coincidence and changed it for the better, maybe saving her from getting crazy or raped, or even killed.