Kirschblüten - Hanami (Cherry Blossoms) poster & wallpaper
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Elmar Wepper, Hannelore Elsner, Nadja Uhl, Maximilian Brückner, Aya Irizuki ... see more see more... , Birgit Minichmayr , Felix Eitner , Floriane Daniel , Celine Tannenberger , Robert Döhlert , Tadashi Endo

An elderly husband suffering from a terminal illness begins to appreciate his wife on a whole new level after she dies suddenly during a trip to see their children and grandchildren in Berlin. Rudi is... read more read more... not long for this world, but only his doctor and his wife, Trudi, know how serious his condition has truly become. As Trudi wrestles with whether or not to break the news to her ailing husband, the doctor recommends to her that the couple perhaps do something that they have been planning for years but could never find the time to fit into their busy schedules. Later, after convincing Rudi to travel with her to Berlin and visit their family for the first time in years, the couple is heartbroken to realize that their children have no time for them. When Trudi suddenly passes away and Rudi realizes that he never knew his wife as well as he wanted to or expressed his affection in a way that truly reverberated, the widower is devastated to discover just what sacrifices Trudi had made to be with him. In the aftermath of that discovery, Rudi dedicates his remaining days to realizing Trudi's unfulfilled dreams and traveling to Tokyo to celebrate her life during the breathtaking cherry blossom festival -- a colorful festival staged to celebrate beauty, impermanence, and new beginnings. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Flixster Users

89% liked it

4,297 ratings

Critics

83% liked it

52 critics

Unrated, 2 hr. 4 min.

Directed by: Doris Dörrie

Release Date: February 11, 2008

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DVD Release Date: April 16, 2009

Stats: 266 reviews

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58th Berlinale Film Festival - Cherry Blossoms - Hanami Premiere 58th Berlinale Film Festival - Cherry Blossoms - Hanami Premiere
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Flixster Reviews (266)

  • Saxia
    January 31, 2011
    Saxia
    I thought I already reviewed this one!

    The acting style was something that I had to get into, but when the true drama sets in halfway, I couldn't stop crying (yeah I know, I'm a big woos). Which for me, is always a good indicator for a high rating (Really? Really!).

    Somehow th... read moree movie The Lovely Bones touched me in a way this movie did as well.
  • kiriyamakazou
    July 28, 2009
    kiriyamakazou
    The first half of Cherry Blossom is a wonderfully realised German tribute to Tokyo Story. An elderly couple go to visit their children only to find that they do not have time for them. The twist here is that the wife knows that the husband is dying but he does not. This adds a fo... read morerever lingering atmosphere of tragedy, but is far from predictable. The second half of the film moves to Japan and explores it's own territory. Here we are treated to tender and saddening moments that many people will be able to relate to. The Japanese landscapes are captured in a way that fully expresses the wonder felt by the protagonists. Some of the child/parent conflict is a bit blatant and some of the culture cross is uninspired. Another film where a westerner thinks somebody introducing them self as Yu, is saying "you"? Really? Luckily the wonderful and meditative feel that radiates off the film, cover those small blemishes.
  • gator681
    April 29, 2010
    gator681
    In "Cherry Blossoms," Trudi(Hannelore Elsner), knowing her husband Rudi(Elmar Wepper), a mid-level bureaucrat, is dying, wants to finally travel with him to Japan to visit their son Karl(Maximilian Bruckner), see Mount Fuji and watch a performance of Butoh which she loves. But h... read moree decides against it, feeling they have some perfectly fine mountains in Germany, thank you very much. Instead, they travel to Berlin to visit family who feel they are being inconvenienced by their visit. So, the couple moves on to the Baltic Sea.

    While owing a huge debt to Ozu's magnificent "Tokyo Story" in its depiction of the marginalization of senior citizens, "Cherry Blossoms" is still an amiable and bittersweet meditation on mortality. The movie contains a twist that turns everything on its head and reinforces the notion that we can never take anything for granted.(Strange as it may seem, this reminds me of a line from the voiceover from "Kick-Ass.") Rudi goes through the motions of his clockwork life, thinking that it will always be the same at least until he retires the following year, displaying his lack of imagination. It is Trudi who hears the clock ticking with time running out with the man she has lived with for decades and always thought she would spend the rest of her life with.
  • hypathio7
    April 8, 2009
    hypathio7
    I saw this one as well at the Cleveland International Film Fest. I didn't like this one quite as much as my wife did, but it was a good solid drama. The elderly man's wife has always wanted to see Japan, Mount Fuji, and a particular kind of traditional dance that inspires her. ... read more The man has his routine and doesn't like to travel much. The man and woman have three children who have all moved far away and find their parents difficult. The wife convinces her husband to visit their two children who live closest because she knows he is near death, then while visiting the beach where they honeymooned she tragically dies first. The man eventually decides to go to Japan, where their other son happens to work, to reconnect with his wife. It's humorous when he takes to cross-dressing in his wife's clothes to be closer to her. He has a unique way of looking at death and the afterlife that I was not familiar with. He befriends a young homeless woman who practices the kind of dance his wife enjoyed in the park for change. Together they go to see Mount Fuji, which turns out to be more difficult than expected. It is an amazing scene when the man is finally able to view Mount Fuji and he reconnects with his wife through dance in the most beautiful and passionate and heart-rending moment.
  • lesleyanorton
    February 26, 2010
    lesleyanorton
    A remake of, or possibly a homage to, TOKYO STORYas an elderly married German couple, Rudy and Trudy, go visit their offspring when Trudy secretly learns her husband has a fatal illness. A story this relevant to many families can easily take a second version, and this one has so... read moreme ncely filmed scenes of Germany, Amsterdam and Tokyo for the armchair tourist, good observations about parent-child relationships plus a cute-as-a-button performance by Aya Irizuki as Yu, the Japanese free-spirit who takes the adrift Rudy under her wing..
  • mvieaddict
    May 31, 2010
    mvieaddict
    Cherry Blossoms was a deep movie about the contacts and the feelings between an elderly couple and their children and the lost chances to deal with each others lives.The movie;s heart was about grief and how we can never really prepare for it. And also an examination of marriage ... read moreand of how partners could become so acquaintance with one another as a couple that they lose their identities as individuals, missing out on the dreams and goals they had for their lives when they were young.The pace of the story was slow as too much speed would have destroyed the wonderful artwork inside the movie. The movie was soft, slow, sad, but at the same time a life lesson, to treasure every single person in our surroundings and to care for, as life could never be predicted.
  • marevalo83
    March 11, 2010
    marevalo83
    I spent the first thirty to forty minutes wondering when -- or if -- it'd get interesting. I was pleasantly surprised, though, because it did live up to -- and surpassed, my expectations. A truly beautiful and sad story.
  • ethwc
    September 28, 2008
    ethwc
    Well constructed movie with subtle acting and scripting. Wonderful story that unfolded gradually throughout the movie. I especially enjoyed the interplay between the protagonist and his children.

View All Kirschblüten - Hanami (Cherry Blossoms) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Jonathan Curiel
March 20, 2009
Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle

The movie is an ideal blend of character study, deceptively simple plot twists, inspired acting, and travelogue. Full Review

Colin Covert
March 6, 2009
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

It's a gentle lesson in facing life's hardships with acceptance rather than grief. Full Review

Peter Rainer
March 2, 2009
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

If you have ever seen Yasujiro Ozu's masterpiece Tokyo Story -- one of the greatest films ever made -- you may respond to Doris Dörrie's Cherry Blossoms, which is a kind of homage. Full Review

Kevin Thomas
February 27, 2009
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

A most beautiful film. Full Review

Carrie Rickey
February 26, 2009
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

Cherry Blossoms is both austere and garish, simultaneously dry and sentimental, tightly repressed and extravagantly expressive, bourgeois and bohemian. It's a seesaw, but [director] Dorrie finds the b... Full Review

Ella Taylor
February 26, 2009
Ella Taylor, Village Voice

Yearning for Ozu, Dörrie stops off at cute, and parks. Full Review

Ty Burr
February 12, 2009
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

There's meat and sustenance there, but Cherry Blossoms too often traffics in shopworn Western notions of Japanese culture; it's a pilgrim's-eye-view of Zen. Full Review

Adam Markovitz
January 22, 2009
Adam Markovitz, Entertainment Weekly

There's a grace to it all, and moments of oddball poetry will reward patient viewers. Full Review

Andrew Sarris
January 21, 2009
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer

It is a seldom-told story in an essentially youth-oriented, escapist movie industry, but when it is told sublimely well, as it is by Ms. Dörrie now, and by McCarey in 1937, and by Ozu in 1953, it beco... Full Review

David Denby
January 20, 2009
David Denby, New Yorker

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 s... Full Review

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