roland-scialom 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.

Jade Kurikoko 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.

treeline1 As the story opens, we meet Rudi and Trudi, an older couple living in Bavaria. He is stoic and undemonstrative, but they have a comfortable, familiar relationship. Rudy is content to go to his dull job everyday while Trudi harbors a secret wish to see Japan and the cherry blossoms. When she learns that he is dying, she arranges a trip to visit their children, but the kids are too busy to be bothered with them.This is a remarkable film about life and death and love. It moves quite slowly and gently and allows us to get to know the couple and their self-absorbed children. It deals with devotion and fulfilling one's dream and gave me a lot to think about. The story moves from Germany to Japan and is in German with English subtitles and much spoken English in the second half.The DVD cover calls this movie, "sublime," and I agree. If you've experienced love and loss, this movie will touch you deeply. Highly recommended.

kennethd-3 I will not say 'Cherry Bloosoms' perfectly flawless. The first half of the movie is a bit too plain, beautiful though. It is easy for audience to find traces of 'Tokyo Story' (Ozu's 1953 work) in the film. The filmmaker attempted a large amount of 'pillow shot'. Audience may feel like she was trying to replicate what Ozu did. It may not be a bad idea,especially young generation nowadays has not even spent a minute on watching old films like Ozu's work. But to me, 'Tokyo Story' is too perfect, and the movie I am talking now is not anywhere near it in the case when both of them are critiquing the relationship between parents and grown-up children. Yet I did experience a sublime journey throughout the course of this beautiful film. What really moved me is the second half of the movie- its delicate description on 'mourning', on how a man copes with the mourning with all kinds of valuable memories of the dead. Beyond doubt the filmmaker did a great work on conveying the feeling of loss. The character'Yu' is impressive enough I still thought of her face that night after watching the movie. She is not the kind of girl with a beautiful face. We the audiences know nearly nothing about the character, but she really hit my heart in a deep way. She is lonely and sad, easily grabs the heart of audiences.Thanks to the soundtrack also. The film is soft, slow, sad, but at the same time it taught me a lesson. To treasure every single person besides me, and to pursue what really matters to me, as can life be ever predicted.