Yûnagi no machi sakura no kuni (2007)

Director:

Kiyoshi Sasabe

Writers:

Fumiyo Kono (original comic)
Kei Kunii (screenplay)

Release Date:

28 July 2007 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama | War

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Rena Tanaka	...	Nanami Ishikawa
Kumiko Asô	...	Minami Hirano
Hisashi Yoshizawa	...	Yutaka Uchikoshi - young
Noriko Nakagoshi	...	Toko Tone
Mitsunori Isaki	...	Asahi Ishikawa - young
Yuta Kanai	...	Nagio Ishikawa
Ryôsei Tayama	...	Yutaka Uchikoshi - adult
Urara Awata	...	Kyoka Ota
Shiho Fujimura	...	Fujimi Hirano
Masaaki Sakai	...	Asahi Ishikawa - adult
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Asami Katsura
Rina Koike
Jun Matsumoto
Saburô Tamura

Also Known As:

Yunagi City, Sakura Country (International: English title)

Runtime:

Japan:118 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Company:

Art Port

Not bad, but could be worse.

Last year I was browsing through a store in Hiroshima and came across a manga called Yuunagi No Machi, Sakura no Kuni. I flipped through it and the story appealed to me. On the train ride home i read it and got my phone out for some additional info and found that this movie was made.

After seeing it I was first pleasantly surprised and then unpleasantly shocked.

While the first part stays pretty close to the written story, with excellent acting, good casting and a deep meaning and feeling (pro- Japan, anti-war etc) the second part was terrible. The book itself consists of three parts where "Town of Cherry Blossoms makes up 2 parts). The first part is mainly the "flashbacks" from the movie, playing baseball, giving her Nagio a cherry blossom shower etc. The second part is the "chase dad on his crazy hyjinx" part.

I found the second part of the movie quite bad, the casting was off, the acting was cheesy and the setting was odd (although accurate, having been there just a day earlier).

The 7 I gave this movie comes from a 9 for the first part, and a 5 from the second part.

I will not go in on the political message too much. I think it's fine, the comic book is even harsher, roughly translated they say "It's been 10 years. I wonder if the people who dropped the atomic bomb are pleased with themselves- Yes! Got another one!"

I think the movie raises a valid point about the American atrocities done to the Japanese people (hello Russia, this is Yankee doodle, look at what we got!).

As a final word, good movie, go get it. Buy the DVD and watch it.