Cherry Blossoms (2008)

Cautiously Recommended

Germany/France

Feature Film

Original Title: Kirschblüten Hanami

Writer/Director: Doris Dörrie

Cinematographer: Hanno Lentz

Composer: Claus Bantzer

Cast: Elmar Wepper, Hannelore Elsner, Irizuki Aya, Maximilian Brückner, Nadja Uhl, Birgit Minichmayr, Felix Eitner, Floriane Daniel

Though German veteran Dörrie’s film shares numerous themes and qualities with Ozu’s Tokyo Story (1953) and McCarey’s Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), its lamentation on the disappointments of ageing and the traumas of mortality is blunted somewhat by several sentimental moments of cutesy tweeness – it is, never the less, for the most part quite moving. Iain.Stott