DVD Review: Cherry Blossoms: Hannelore Elsner, Elmar Wepper, Floriane Daniel, Felix Eitner, Birgit Minichmayr, Nadja Uhl, Maximilian Bruckner, Aya Irizuki, Celine Tannenberger, Robert Dohlert, Tadashi Endo, Doris Dorrie: Movies & TV

Jun16

DVD Review: Cherry Blossoms: Hannelore Elsner, Elmar Wepper, Floriane Daniel, Felix Eitner, Birgit Minichmayr, Nadja Uhl, Maximilian Bruckner, Aya Irizuki, Celine Tannenberger, Robert Dohlert, Tadashi Endo, Doris Dorrie: Movies & TV

Posted by admin | on 16 June, 05:56 AM

Product Description
CHERRY BLOSSOMS is a tender, emotionally intense and profoundly moving story of marital love. 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.

A Great Film,

By Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas) -
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)

“Cherry Blossoms”

A Great Film

Amos Lassen

“Cherry Blossoms” is a near perfect film. From the moment that images appear on the screen, the audience is hooked. Rudi and Trudi pulls us into their lives immediately and from the moment that Trudi is told by doctors that her husband, Rudi, does not have long to live, we feel as if we are there with her feeling her pain.
We soon learn what kind of man Rudi is and we follow the lives of an older couple who are very much in love. We see how badly they are treated by their children and we learn that this is because they believe that Rudi has suppressed his wife her entire life and did not let her do what she wanted to do. She devoted her life to her husband and children. We see the two in their intimate moments and we realize how much love they share and that Trudi is happy with her husband. The fact that the children think differently is of little importance and in reality is not true.
Trudi convinces her husband to visit their children in Berlin and when they are vacationing on the Baltic Sea, Trudi suddenly dies. Here Rudi realizes that he did not know her very well nor did he take her dreams seriously. This is the focus of the film–death and blaming oneself for not being kind to someone who has just died.
As the story unfolds we see the culture clash in Japan but more important we see Rudi dealing with the death of his wife and his understanding that his life is now very different. The film is sensitive and touching and watching a man dealing with mourning his wife shows the impermanence of memories which can be both tender and funny. The heart of the film is grief and how we are never really prepared for it.
There are stunning images from nature and a lot of symbolism and although the subject matter is quite heavy, it is balanced with family dynamics which are almost farcical and manage to tame the weight of the theme of the film. We watch as love gains momentum and then dies and it is an apotheosis of feeling that is overwhelming. The emotions are beautiful and this is a sublime movie experience. The impermanence of life looms large and the movie was obviously crafted with love.

A Beautiful, Richly Textured Film,

By Norman E. Babbitt (Portland, Or) -

“Cherry Blossoms,” directed by Doris Dorrie, is quite simply, the most exquisitely beautiful and wise film I have ever experienced. It surprised me, going in directions I had not forseen, with a freshness and fierceness of love that is as provocative as it is deeply moving. You traverse with the main character, a man who has lived a safely routine, dull life and live with him a transformative, spiritual journey that is beyond the usual cliches, so often played in Hollywood movies. It is simultaneously raw and subtle in it’s vision of the true wonder of life and the possibility of really opening to the depths of being. I don’t want to give away any of the plot and I would emphasize not even reading the back jacket of the DVD package, nor any reviews that give away any of the plot. I, unfortunately, was not so lucky and the spoilers that are written alter one’s experience of it. Better not to know anything of the plot. Yet even if one does read the plot beforehand, it is still an amazing, soul touching experience. This film was life altering for me and helped me in my own inner work and feeling about life, itself. “Cherry Blossoms” has been a blessing, and I have deep gratitude toward the director, who has obviously tapped into life’s deepest, nurturing wells and underground springs.
Search Cherry Blossoms: Hannelore Elsner, Elmar Wepper, Floriane Daniel, Felix Eitner, Birgit Minichmayr, Nadja Uhl, Maximilian Bruckner, Aya Irizuki, Celine Tannenberger, Robert Dohlert, Tadashi Endo, Doris Dorrie: Movies & TV from AmAzon

[asa]B001Y44EBW[/asa]