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Cherry Blossoms
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 11 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Romance
Written by: Doris Dorrie
Directed by: Doris Dorrie
Release Date:
Theatrical: January 16, 2009
DVD: June 16, 2009
Running Time: 127 minutes, Color
Origin: Germany | France
Language(s): German | English | Japanese
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Elmar Wepper, and Hannelore Elsner
Only Trudi knows that her husband Rudi is suffering from a terminal illness. She decides not to tell him and convinces him to visit their family in Berlin. Then, suddenly, Trudi dies. Rudi is devastated but vows to make up for her lost life. And so he embarks on his last journey - to Tokyo - in the midst of the cherry blossom festival, a celebration of beauty, impermanence and new beginnings. (Strand Releasing)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A stunning reminder of the omnipresence of mortality.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Throughout the film there are small, rapturous moments.
Read Full Review >Empire David Parkinson
Unpredictable and compelling, this draws parallels between Japanese and German cultures in interesting and moving ways.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Deborah Young
Doerrie goes beyond the "Lost in Translation" jokes about East-West culture clashes to communicate something meaningful and deep about Japanese art and thought.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Adam Markovitz
There's a grace to it all, and moments of oddball poetry.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Both austere and garish, simultaneously dry and sentimental, tightly repressed and extravagantly expressive, bourgeois and bohemian. It's a seesaw, but Dorrie finds the balance.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Curiel
The movie is an ideal blend of character study, deceptively simple plot twists, inspired acting, and travelogue.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Thanks to an accomplished cast, anchored by Elsner and Wepper, and observant filmmakers, very little in Cherry Blossoms is lost in translation.
Read Full Review >Variety Eddie Cockrell
A successful novelist whose films bear the expansive plotting and telling character detail of the page, Doerrie never seems in any particular hurry to tell her tales, preferring the journey to the destination.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
There's something a little shallow about contrasting ungrateful German kids with their respectful Japanese counterparts and presuming the cultural differences are so cut-and-dried.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
It's a strained but heartfelt work of muted sentimentality, obvious in its symbolism but grounded in a sense of life's preciousness and brevity. Depending on your mood and indulgence, you may weep or you may be left out in the cold.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Refusing to be rushed, Doris Dörrie blends individual experiences with universal emotions to create a quietly moving study of self-discovery.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
The movie's conceits are just barely endurable, but the sharpness of Dörrie's eye--for Tokyo's electric night, for Fuji's iconographic landscapes, for cherry blossoms--sustains emotion even when story logic fails.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
While Ms. Dörrie’s film is exquisitely shot, its themes and metaphors are obvious rather than subtle, and its emotional rhythms -- rueful laughter punctuating the pathos -- would not be out of place in a television drama.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
At more than two hours, Cherry Blossoms could do with some pruning. And do husband and wife have to have rhyming names?
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
The best I can say for Cherry Blossoms is that it's made with love; the worst, that it's been a big hit in Germany. Yearning for Ozu, Dörrie stops off at cute, and parks.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Kenji C gave it a9:
A German director Doris Dorrie’s third film in her trilogy on Japan, Cherry Blossoms, is an exquisite, absorbing and deeply moving meditation on life, death, loss, loneliness and grief. Talking about old parents with alienated and indifferent descendants, the first half of the film may remind the audience of Yasujiro Ozu’s film made in 1953, Tokyo Monogatari. The six hugging-or-massage (by family members and strangers) scenes and the father’s harmonious relationships with his daughter’s girlfriend and a Japanese girl successfully highlight the poor relationship between the father and his children. The second half in which the main character embarks on a reflective journey in search of traces of the deceased love captures the mood of Lost in Translation and Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles. The cultural shock experienced also makes the film distinguishable from Under the Sand. Cherry blossoms and Mount Fuji symbolize the fleeting and unpredictable nature of life. The film delivers a message that we should treasure the people around us, pursue our dreams and enjoy life to the full so that we will have no regrets. Besides, it is also about the main character’s inability to communicate with not only the dead, but also the living family members. Butoh, a Japanese dance, helps people to feel and establish connections with others. What’s more, the audience can pay attention to the symbolic meaning of the drawings at the beginning of the film and the photos at the end. The cinematographer and the composer also succeed in evoking different tones from several shooting locations in Germany and Japan. The suburbs contrast sharply with the hustle and bustle of city life. Apart from the haunting visual images and the Japanese music playing upon the audience’s heartstrings, the characters are so lifelike and well-acted that the audience will care about what happens to them. On the whole, although Cherry Blossoms is a bit too long, without emotional bludgeoning or syrupy manipulation, it is a sincerely made little road movie producing emotional resonance and reflective ripples in a whisper.
Chris K. gave it a9:
The film shows not only the dynamics of husband and wife, but also of parents and children. Love can be taken for granted, and time shows no mercy on those who wait for happiness and intimacy. I was not totally engrossed in the movie, but I did find it emotionally satisfying.
Julia A. gave it a9:
Portrayal of wanderlust in affection and admiration.
Walter L. gave it a9:
A charming movie about youth, old age, death and hope across cultures.
