Yûnagi no machi sakura no kuni (2007)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

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 Aso	...	Minami Hirano
Yû Yoshizawa	...	Yutaka Uchikoshi - young
Noriko Nakagoshi	...	Toko Tone
Mitsunori Isaki	...	Asahi Ishikawa - young
Yuta Kanai	...	Nagio Ishikawa
Ryosei 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
Saburo 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

Politically inappropriate film.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This film had an abnormally high user ratings in Yahoo! Japan Movies, but I was disgusted by it after watching. The movie is divided into two parts. First half is "Yuunagi no Machi" ("Town of Evening Calm"), about a family of nuclear bombing survivors in Hiroshima, 13 years after the bombing. The second part, "Sakura no Kuni" ("Land of Cherry Blossoms") is set in present day Japan, where descendants of the family trace back to the past.

The first half presents a nice atmosphere and a touching story about Minami, a female survivor still trying to cope with the death of her sister in the bombing. Asou Kumiko was phenomenal as Minami, the female surviver. Her control of emotion was right on, and her acting was very convincing. The second half though, is nothing short of a disaster, where it turned into a cheesy game of tag between a father and a daughter. I was quite surprised at how the 3 main characters were all actors I disliked; Tanaka Rena, Nakagoshi Noriko, and Sakai Masaaki. Nakagoshi was actually alright in this film, but the other two were absolutely horrible as usual and completely out of place. Change in atmosphere and style were far too abrupt, which contributed to the horrible flow of story in this film. In addition, corny lines like "I chose to be born into this family" was not exactly what I expected from a movie with such a serious theme.

What really bothers me is how this film feels like a post-war propaganda that places Japan solely as the victim of evil with lines like "Bombs didn't just drop, it was dropped by someone", and "I wonder if the people who wanted us to die are happy now I'm dying, even though it took 13 years" etc.

Yes, hundreds of thousands of people were dead/permanently affected by the two nukes, and that's an event that should never be forgotten. But is this director really trying to convince us that Japan was a victim in WWII? It just completely ignores their own atrocity in WWII, as well as the cause of the bombing. It was obvious by 1945 that Japan had already lost the war, yet they refused to surrender due to 'Samurai honor' where they would rather die (i.e. kamikaze) rather than surrender. The bombings, though horrible, were necessary to save MORE lives from lost. This may be a cruel way of putting it, but it was brought on by themselves.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with mourning for the numerous dead and criticizing America for the damage they've caused, but this kind of "we're innocent victims" movie should never be made. Just imagine what a young or uneducated person would feel about the bombing after seeing a film like this. Japan still making films like this is exactly the reason why so many people in rest of Asia STILL have deep hatred toward the Japanese, while Germans has made peace with pretty much rest of the world.

I personally love the Japanese culture, and I know a lot of nice, kind Japanese people. But movies with this kind of message is simply wrong, and for their sake, I hope there will never be another movie like this ever made again.