Cherry Blossom Motif in Japanese Films

[Kristoffer4]

Hey I am a huge fan of Japanese movies and in general Samurai and Chambra films. So I was reading this article the other day about how important it is for the japanese when the Cherry trees Blossom. They also talk about when they wither and how it can almost look like that it is snowing pink...I really liked this visual idea. So I started wondering if any of the japanese and in particular the Chambrara use this mortif or theme?

[AZAI]

There is of course "Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees" by Masahiro Shinoda, and I know it is a recurring thing in Takeshi Kitano's work (Dolls). Gohatto by Oshima has some stricking cherry blossom scenes at the end (Kitano strikes down a tree with his sword). Also I think in Rashomon it is used. And Ithose are just from the top of my head....

[Kristoffer4]

Thanks! I have actual seen Gohatto and Rashomon but couldn't remember.
Where do I find Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees" by Masahiro Shinoda on dvd, with eng. subs?

[AZAI]

there's a Japanese dvd out with english subs but a bit on the expensive side....
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview ... review.htm

[feihong]

Easy to find at superhappyfun.com.

BTW, cherry blossoms are common throughout the films of Shunji Iwai, also. They feature prominently in his more youth-themed works, like HANA AND ALICE and especially APRIL STORY. They appear in the OAV of Mamoru Oshii's PATLABOR (probably just to denote the season? Oshii certainly never uses them again).

They often stand in for seasonal change, for a feeling of perhaps the promise of youth. Also, they have connotations for the dying (especially in the chambaras). Seijun Suzuki does a sort of parody of this in ZIGEUNERWEISEN.

I have seen them used in films and read in literature of cherry blossoms being used symbolically to represent Japan itself. There are often such associations drawn in military movies (for instance when a soldier longs to return home to see the cherry blossoms...one...last...time--urk! The end.). As said, Kitano loves to use them in a million different ways, but a whole great many Japanese filmmakers have always loved to use them--they are, after all, one of the very unique natural features of the Japanese landscape, and they have a great deal of cultural meaning.

[Michael Kerpan]

> a whole great many Japanese filmmakers have always loved to use them

Ozu, on the other hand, made a point of never using actual cherry blossom imagery. He does have virtual cherry blossoms (shredded paper) in "Floating Weeds".

[Kristoffer4]

Cool I have Patlabor on the way, so I will look out for the Cheery trees.

[leo goldsmith]

Inagaki's Chushingura has a lovely cherry blossom scene. If you ever get a chance to see this screened on film, leap at it. It's stunning.

[Steven H]

There's a great article on cherry blossoms in japanese art at wikipedia.com. In addition, I can roll off an endless list of Japanese films that use cherry blossoms as imagery. Some of my favorites are Takahata's films and TV work (his adaptation of Anne of Green Gables is full of them, as well as My Neighbors the Yamadas.)

One of my favorite Oshima films, Ceremonies (Gishiki) is plotted around the sordid details of a Japanese family named "Sakurado", which is basically cherry blossoms as family name. How appropriate for a film that deconstructs tradition and family values as patriarchal oppression (I think).

The Shinoda film is a great example, but I believe he also uses cherry blossoms in a few of his other films (With Beauty and Sorrow, Ballad of Orin).

One of the most memorable scenes I've ever seen which contained cherry blossoms comes from Yoshida Yoshishige's Eros Plus Massacre. Here's a screen shot from the R2 Japan disc exhibiting the use of sakura, as well as Yoshida's beautiful use of decentered compositions:

[kieslowski_67]

"Fine snow" by Kon Ichikawa.

[Michael Kerpan]

"Fine snow" by Kon Ichikawa.

Otherwise known as "The Makioka Sisters" -- right?

[kinjitsu]

Inagaki's Chushingura has a lovely cherry blossom scene.

Which bring to mind Lord Asano's death poem:

Sadder than blossoms swept off by the wind
A life torn away in the fullness of Spring

or from the Mizoguchi version:

More frail tha petals scattered by the wind
I bid a last farewell and leave Spring behind

Otherwise known as "The Makioka Sisters" -- right?

Exactly right.

[che-etienne]

Inagaki's Chushingura has a lovely cherry blossom scene. If you ever get a chance to see this screened on film, leap at it. It's stunning.

When I saw the topic title, I thought immediately of this scene. Is it not sublimely beautiful?

[feihong]

The Patlabor I remember it from is the original OAV series, which is on DVD nowheres in the world, to my knowledge. What did you order?

[feihong]

Interesting that Ozu never used them. But then Ozu liked to use visual metaphors that were personal, and intimate; the cherry blossoms seem like such a vast metaphor, taking in a society's supposed virtues.

[Michael Kerpan]

I think Ozu avoided using cherry blossoms because he felt that they were so overloaded with cultural significance that resorting to them was sort of like taking an illicit short cut (visually and narratively).

[King of Kong]

I think Ozu avoided using cherry blossoms because he felt that they were so overloaded with cultural significance that resorting to them was sort of like taking an illicit short cut (visually and narratively).

I seem to recall seeing cherry blossoms in an Ozu film. Can't remember which one, though.

[Kristoffer4]

The Patlabor I remember it from is the original OAV series, which is on DVD nowheres in the world, to my knowledge. What did you order?

I ordered the movie.

[HerrSchreck]

I seem to recall seeing cherry blossoms in an Ozu film. Can't remember which one, though.

Maybe you're thinking of STORY OF/FLOATING WEEDS? The scene inside the theater (after the subterfuge on his son is revealed) sort of artificially reproduces falling cherry blossoms.

[Michael Kerpan]

> Maybe you're thinking of STORY OF/FLOATING WEEDS? The scene
> inside the theater (after the subterfuge on his son is revealed) sort
> of artificially reproduces falling cherry blossoms.

Of course Ozu never provides the slightest naturalistic explanation for the rain of shredded paper. ;~}

I can't recall any Ozu shots (offhand) of cherry trees in bloom (much less shedding petals).

[Kristoffer4]

I just want to add that The last Episode of the Anime series Ghost in the shell Stand alone complex 2nd gig has a scene with Cherry blossom trees.

[puxzkkx]

The falling cherry blossoms motif is repeated several times throughout the 1959 FLOATING WEEDS.

[MichaelB]

It pretty much goes without saying that the appearance of the cherry blossom at the end of Aki Kaurismäki's Le Havre is a conscious tribute to Ozu.

[colinr0380]

The end of the second series of the Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex is a good one. I would also particularly recommend the anime Doomed Megalopolis, a horror fantasy which not only features many scenes of swirling cherry tree blossom symbolising loss (as well as white petals turning blood red) but which also entwines the 1923 Kanto earthquake into one of its episodes. (It was also remade as a live action film in the early 1990s, which I have not seen but which I have heard does not measure up to the anime)

There's also some cherry blossom action in 5 Centimetres per Second.

[Michael Kerpan]

It pretty much goes without saying that the appearance of the cherry blossom at the end of Aki Kaurismäki's Le Havre is a conscious tribute to Ozu.

But (see above), it is a peculiar tribute as Ozu was the one Japanese director who went out of his way to _avoid_ cherry blossoms (other than the mysterious faux blossoms in Floating Weeds -- made of paper and falling inside a building with a more or less intact roof).

I seem to recall cherry trees in blook in Ichikawa's Makioka Sisters.