Cherry Blossoms

The doctor tells Trudi that her husband is ill and does not have long. Trudi does not tell Rudi. She arranges a journey; they will go to Berlin to see their children. The children are busy and the visit does not go well. Then they go to the Baltic coast. Something unexpected happens there: it is Trudi who dies. Rudi is left. His wife had a wish she never carried out; she wanted to go to Japan and learn Butoh. Rudi goes to Tokyo. He does not speak the language and knows nobody. Doris Dörrie writes and directs. Elmar Wepper plays Rudi and Hannelore Elsner plays Trudi; Nadja Uhl and Maximilian Brückner are in the cast. It is a German production. The film refers openly to Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story; the premise and some scenes come from it. Part of it was shot in Japan and the cherry blossom season was used as it came. The matter it treats is never being curious about another person's life; Rudi begins to know his wife only after she is dead. Butoh is an instrument inside the narrative; it is described as a way of speaking with the dead. The narrative puts an old man's grief at its centre and builds the feeling by saying little. The second half takes place entirely in Japan and the register changes. The ending stages a meeting and departs from realism. Its limit is method; the narrative is slow, the Japanese section too symbolic, and the ending sentimental. Who it is for: viewers who like German drama and narratives of grief. Who it is not for: it is slow, sad, and the ending heavy.