After seeing it you feel that you have already seen it many times and soon you will have forgotten.Spoiler: I never understood why good cinema has to be slow. I do not know why to make a good movie you have to make it slow. This is a good movie or rather, it is a good script, which for my taste is poorly performed. I understand cinema as the sum of a few facets and in this case, the only one I like is the script. If we go to the other facets, apart from the direction of actors, none is good. A fundamental part of a good movie is to make it enjoyable, here fails, the photo, needless to say. Lately it is fashionable to put all the light through the windows and not see the outside, where I have to tell a story with the photo. If we see the makeup and hairdressing as normal, which is not bad, at least not bad. But I think that after seeing it you feel that you have seen it many times and soon you will have forgotten. One thing to be thankful for, at least it's not the typical movie with one shot per second. Although do not worry about telling the story with the camera, which is also lost. Yes I like the symbolic touches it has as the death of the woman watching as death comes to get you

"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.

(Spoilers) The first scene has Trudi in a doctor's office being informed that her husband Rudi, in his 60s, has a terminal illness, but he will probably be symptom free for some indeterminate amount of time. After I accepted this rather artificial setup, I found the rest of the story effective. The doctors suggest to Trudi that perhaps an adventure be taken, to which Trudi responds, "My husband hates adventures. He would prefer it if nothing changed, ever." Indeed Rudi is presented as a regimented, but not altogether unlikable, man. Trudi convinces him to visit a couple of their children in Berlin, but that visit is awkward. The kids don't know what to do with the parents and Trudi sums things up with, "I don't know them any more." While in Berlin Trudi goes to see a Butoh dancing performance (while Rudi waits outside). That scene is wonderfully filmed and, seeing Trudi's obvious appreciation for the dance, we see that Rudi has ignored and dampened some of Trudi's most powerful passions, not out of malice, but just for lack of trying.There is a favored son, Karl, who lives in Tokyo and Trudi has always wanted to go to Japan for a visit and to realize her dream of seeing Mount Fuji. More evidence of Rudi's repressive influence is that the trip to Japan has never materialized (if you have seen one mountain you have seen them all is his philosophy). An unexpected plot twist has Trudi dying before Rudi. Oddly, the person most sympathetic to Rudi's plight is his daughter's lesbian lover Franzi. In a conversation with her Rudi comes to understand things about his wife, like her passion to become a Butoh dancer. During the course of this conversation Rudi sees just how remiss he has been by not making any significant attempt to understand his wife. A comment that brought Rudi up short was Franzi's saying that maybe there was another person inside Trudi that nobody ever saw. Not something a man wants to hear about his spouse.In a trip that is part atonement, part self discovery, part adventure, and part attempt to understand and commune with his dead wife, Rudi goes to Tokyo where he stays with his son. The visit with Karl goes badly, with Karl landing some brutal verbal blows. But, in contrast to the harsh family dynamics, Rudi encounters a young street Butoh dancer and the friendship that develops between them among the cherry blossoms is pure poetry and leads to an emotionally powerful ending. The mini travelogue of Tokyo is nicely done, as is the delicate score.

If you would've told me prior to seeing this that I would fall head-over-heels for a film that's about a frustrated Bavarian Butoh dancer, with a tale of homelessness, loneliness, a pink telephone, cabbage rolls…and recycling all in the mix, I'd have laughed out loud.In fact, I did laugh throughout the course of this wonderful, delicate film (that has the most selfish progeny since "King Lear"). In the opening scene a wife tells a physician, "My husband doesn't really care much for adventure," and, boy, does he have treat—and a trial—in store for him. But so does the audience.The film's heart is about grief and how we can never really prepare for it. "I'd like my ashes scattered upon the sea," a spouse says to his partner. Fearfully, she says, "Why do you say that now?" And why indeed since we can never plan our end and its circumstances? It takes a young, marginally sane street performer, to tell us exactly what the Great Mystery is all about.And the use of stunning images from nature, as well as the contorted gestures of Butoh theater…and the equally contorted emotions from a family unaware of who the others are that this film brims over with so many rewards that it can be enjoyed over and over again.The family dynamics are almost farcical which keep the weight of the subject matter from spilling over into despair. And while the central character's own despair is the subject of the film, it's thrilling to watch him find his way out of it.Exceptional performances, shimmering cinematography, a truly great film.