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Cherry Blossoms Reviews

Indeed, the film may be a thoughtful meditation on the fragility of life, but it's also a celebration on the powerful, enduring strength of love.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 31, 2019

While the film's emotional poignancy is undeniable, its derivative nature gets in the way of becoming a complete work of its own.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 3, 2019

I am in favor of films remaining enigmatic or having an air of mystery about them, but Cherry Blossoms crosses the line into aimlessness.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 11, 2015

This may lack the understated pathos of Ozu's somber masterpiece, but it's still a moving meditation on aging and loss, and Wepper and Elsner are unforgettable.

Full Review | Jul 30, 2015

Is it all a bit precious and far-fetched? Sure, but so, the filmmaker is saying, is life.

Full Review | Jul 7, 2010

I can appreciate Dörrie's craft, and her sincerity, but the two-hour story of Rudi's evolution, which includes his unlikely friendship with a tiresome white-faced butoh performer (Aya Irizuki), meant nothing to me.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 23, 2009

A bare reading of the plot doesn't actually do justice to the subtle beauty of this exquisite little film.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 22, 2009

The example set by Ozu's best works goes unheeded as the film becomes too cutesy and forced to be moving.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 9, 2009

It's a quiet, very beautiful film about the duality of love and death.

Full Review | Apr 9, 2009

Cherry Blossoms is not a complete train wreck, although at 127 minutes it's way too long for the ground that it covers.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Apr 3, 2009

A lyrical attempt to make sense of grief that appeals shamelessly to the heart rather than the head.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 3, 2009

Ozu's handling of the frosty schism between awkward parents and their ghastly offspring resulted in a heartbreaking piece of cinema. This lovely update is not quite in the same tragi-comic league, but it's authentic enough to prick tears.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 3, 2009

This is a sweet-natured piece, and though the final section in Tokyo itself is sentimental and over-extended, there are poignant, mordant insights.

This bouquet of nicely observed private moments packs an unexpectedly profound emotional punch.

An affectionate, gentle film, if marred by sentimentality.

Well written, beautifully acted and emotionally powerful.

Unpredictable and compelling, this draws parallels between Japanese and German cultures in interesting and moving ways.

If she doesn't quite go the distance - resonance needs richer characterisation, origami finer scissors - Cherry Blossoms is still a touching, tangibly personal chamber movie.

Sometimes a quiet whisper is more compelling than the loudest shout. Cherry Blossoms is a gentle, maudlin tale of love, loss, family ties and the fleeting nature of life.

Full Review | Apr 3, 2009

The bluntness of the script doesn't attain the ethereal quality it's striving for (Japanese cinema favours inscrutability, a cultural lesson that seems to have been lost in translation here), but it's still oddly absorbing.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Cherry Blossoms

After Rudi's wife Trudi suddenly dies, he travels to Japan to fulfill her dream of being a Butoh dancer. After Rudi's wife Trudi suddenly dies, he travels to Japan to fulfill her dream of being a Butoh dancer. After Rudi's wife Trudi suddenly dies, he travels to Japan to fulfill her dream of being a Butoh dancer.

• Doris Dörrie
• Elmar Wepper
• Hannelore Elsner
• Aya Irizuki
• 32 User reviews
• 72 Critic reviews
• 62 Metascore
• 8 wins & 8 nominations

• Rudi Angermeier

• Trudi Angermeier

• Karl Angermeier

• Karolin Angermeier
• Klaus Angermeier

• Emma Angermeier
• Celine Angermeier
• Robert Angermeier
• Butoh Dancer
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

Karolin Angermeier : Your cue, mama.

Klaus Angermeier : Go on, mama.

Karolin Angermeier : Mama, please, 'The Mayfly'. Come one, mama. For us.

Trudi Angermeier : 'Stop! What you're doing is murder!'

Klaus Angermeier : 'Such cruelty is not a must... '

Trudi Angermeier : 'The Mayfly has but one short day... '

Karolin Angermeier : 'One single day of pain, one single day of lust... '

Rudi Angermeier : 'Oh, let it hover there, until it meets it's end. It's heavens last forever. It's life one day to make amends.' Right, mama?

• Connections Featured in Cherry Blossoms and Demons (2019)
• Soundtracks Japan by Nanwei Chin Su

User reviews 32

• Oct 21, 2009
• How long is Cherry Blossoms? Powered by Alexa
• March 6, 2008 (Germany)
• Official site (Germany)
• Official site (France)
• Las flores del cerezo
• Allgäu, Bavaria, Germany
• Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR)
• ARD Degeto Film
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Jan 18, 2009
• $12,861,658

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• Runtime 2 hours 7 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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“Cherry Blossoms” is a quiet tale of love and loss

Doris Dörrie's "Cherry Blossoms" is a quiet, moving tale of love and loss. Review by Seattle Times movie critic Moira Macdonald.

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A quiet, moving tale of love and loss, Doris Dörrie’s “Cherry Blossoms” takes us from the German countryside to the bustle of Tokyo and the serenity of Mount Fuji. The journey is a pilgrimage, taken by one spouse in memory of another. Rudi (Elmar Wepper) brings his wife’s sky-blue sweater with him on the trip — a sweater they once cozily shared on a cold beach. Hidden under his coat, he opens it to a pink cloud of cherry blossoms. “Trudi, this is for you,” he says.

Rudi and Trudi (Hannelore Elsner) are long-married and intertwined, with a predictable yet contented life. He goes to work every day, precisely placing his hat in the train’s overhead bin; she makes his lunches and irons his handkerchiefs. “I always wanted to go to Japan with him,” says Trudi in a voice-over, at the beginning of the film. “To go without him would be not really seeing it.” They thought there would be time for that Japan trip someday, but Trudi’s unexpected death on a beach vacation shatters Rudi; he had never pictured going forward alone.

“Cherry Blossoms” unfolds at its own quiet pace, taking its time; in the way that the Japanese calmly inform Rudi that he must wait for Mount Fuji, frequently shrouded in fog, to show itself when it’s ready. Dörrie revels in the scenery of Japan, as Trudi would have (though it’s unfortunate that the movie’s digital format results in some blurriness), showing us a butoh dancer delicately unfurling in a blossom-laden park, partnered by her own shadow. “Everyone can dance butoh,” the dancer tells Rudi. “Everybody has a shadow.”

With Trudi as his shadow, Rudi faces his loss, culminating in a final sequence of inexpressible magic under the eye of the elusive mountain. He had to travel a long way, it turns out, to come home.

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Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or [email protected]

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Cherry Blossoms Review

03 Apr 2009

127 minutes

Cherry Blossoms

This variation on Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story is held together by a moving performance by Elmar Wepper, as the civil servant seeking to fulfil his wife’s last wishes. Having been as coolly received by Tokyo-based son Maximilian Brückner as he and Hannelore Elsner were in Berlin by ungrateful children Birgit Minichmayr and Felix Eitner, Wepper cuts a truly tragi-comic figure.

But once he gets to know busker Aya Irizuki, he steps out on the road to redemption. Full of gentle humour and unforced pathos, this is a delight, with Hanno Lentz’s photography stippled with subtle metaphors that avoid cross-cultural platitude and quaint kitsch.

Cherry Blossoms review

A german-japanese slow-burner about a family grown apart.

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Doris Dörrie’s family drama reworks Yasujiro Ozu’s classic Tokyo Story in a German-Japanese context.

An elderly couple in a Bavarian village decide to visit their grown-up children in Berlin, a married son and a lesbian daughter. But their children have grown away from them – only their daughter’s girlfriend will make time for them.

Two twists, though: the wife knows her husband’s got a fatal disease, but hasn’t told him, and the other – well, it comes about 40 minutes in and it’ll surprise you. An affectionate, gentle film, if marred by sentimentality.

Philip Kemp

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine. 

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Cherry blossoms (kirschblüten – hanami).

The doctors tell Trudi Angemeier (Hannelore Elsner) that her husband, Rudi (Elmar Wepper), has cancer and does not have long to live. She decides not to tell him the bad news and suggests an impromptu visit to their children living in Berlin. She wants to enjoy their remaining days together but fate will cause things to take a very different turn in “Cherry Blossoms.”

Laura's Review: B+

When Trudi Angermeier (Hannelore Elsner, "Go for Zucker!") is told her husband Rudi (Elmar Wepper) is dying, she tries to nudge him towards adventure, but in her heart she knows Rudi is a man of routine. Trudi succeeds in getting Rudi to visit their two eldest children in Berlin, but her dream is to visit their youngest, Karl (Maximilian Brückner, "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days"), in Tokyo, and to see the "Cherry Blossoms." Writer/director Doris Dörrie ("Men...," "Naked"), who has dabbled with Asian themes before in "Enlightenment Guaranteed" and her last film, "How to Cook Your life," is at the peak of her directorial powers in her third decade of filmmaking with this moving exploration of the facets that make up a person. Part homage to "Tokyo Story" and a more emotionally engaging reflection on impermanence than "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Cherry Blossoms" is a film of strong sentiment that doesn't succumb to sentimentality. Trudi and Rudi live in an idyllic Bavarian town, where crucifixes are affixed to haus exteriors and ducks parade the streets. Trudi keeps a home full of hearts and flower furniture, but there is an obvious affinity for Japan to be seen in wall hangings, the kimono she wears as her robe and the postcards she keeps in a drawer. Rudi takes the train to work daily and returns to a home cooked meal. When the couple go to Berlin, Trudi's agenda is cultural exploration while Rudi tries to bring home with him, pressing the local weisswurst he's brought upon one and all. Eldest son Klaus (Felix Eitner) and his wife Emma (Floriane Daniel) don't know what to make of the impromptu visit and lesbian daughter Karolin Angermeier (Birgit Minichmayr) is borderline antagonistic, yet it is her girlfriend, Franzi (Nadja Uhl, "Twin Sisters," "The Baader Meinhof Complex"), who takes the senior couple around town. Franzi connects with Trudi in a profound way during a performance of an esteemed Japanese Butoh dancer. Later, alone at a beachside resort before returning home, Trudi engages Rudi in an echo of the dance and although he is confused, one can see the enchantment on his face as he observes his wife's rapture. "Cherry Blossoms" takes a surprising turn at its midpoint, one that finds Rudi in Tokyo with Karl, as bewildered as his elder siblings on just what to do with dad. Rudi strikes out on his own, and after a rough start in the Roppongi district, goes to visit Trudi's beloved cherry blossoms at Mt. Fuji where he finds Yu (Aya Irizuki), a young Butoh dancer who befriends him. On the surface, Dorrie's West meets East story may seem obvious - for every Fuji print in Trudi's home, there is a Bavarian beer chart hanging in Karl's Tokyo-modern apartment - but it is in her examination of how people define each other and how she uses the Butoh dance to connect her themes that one finds the riches in her film. As in "Tokyo Story," the urban children of an elderly couple find no time in their hurried modern lives for parents they can no longer relate to, but Dorrie takes this idea one step further using the character of Franzi, who discovers an important element of Trudi's being that Rudi has failed to recognize. Dorrie is not saying that it is impossible to know another person, but that we accept people through our own experience, and, therefore, only ever know aspects of a person. We see other examples of this throughout the film, such as when Trudi suggests to her Berlin relatives that Klaus drinks too much and is shot down, only to later see Klaus get drunk on an outing with his father in a Tokyo park. Dorrie's other important theme is the relative moment that is life. When Trudi's daughter-in-law swats a fly at the dinner table, all children hold their breath awaiting mom's outburst. Instead the poem 'The Mayfly has but one day,' must be coaxed from her. Shadows on the beach and the cherry blossoms themselves continue the theme, but nowhere is it illustrated more beatifully than in the Butoh dance. The film has been beautifully designed, color used to juxtapose the German and Japanese locations. Dorrie has a great eye for contrast - note a scene where Klaus and Karo sit clothed on a beach backgrounded by a couple rubbing suntan oil on each other. Original music by Claus Bantzer ("Men...," "Dragon Chow") pulls the whole together. The cast is exceptional, an ensemble that convinces as family with Uhl and Irizuki notable as complementary outsider accents.

Robin's Review: DNS

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Review: Cherry Blossoms

In Doris Dörrie's emotionally loaded melodrama Kirschblüten — Hanami , an aging German couple, Trudi (Hannelore Eisner) and Rudi (Elmer Wrapper), grow tighter than ever as they perceive their alienation from their two elder children, Klaus (Felix Eitner) and Karo (Birgit Minichmayr). Their only hope is their youngest, Karl (Maximilian Brückner), who lives in Tokyo. After Trudi dies in her sleep, Rudi goes to be with Karl, less because he wants to than because his wife had dreamed of visiting Japan: Mount Fuji, butoh dancing, cherry blossoms in spring. Some may find Rudi's journey moving, even transcendent. I can appreciate Dörrie's craft, and her sincerity, but the two-hour story of Rudi's evolution, which includes his unlikely friendship with a tiresome white-faced butoh performer (Aya Irizuki), meant nothing to me.

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In 1937, when accepting his Best Director Oscar for the classic screwball comedy The Awful Truth , Leo McCarey graciously thanked the Academy before bluntly telling them, “You’ve given it to me for the wrong film.” He was referring to the other film he directed that year – his labor of love, Make Way for Tomorrow . In a cruel twist of fate, the film so inspired Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu that he essentially remade it in his own Tokyo Story , now considered an all-time great film, while McCarey’s -- the better of the two in my estimation -- remains unreleased on DVD, floating around on poor-quality bootlegs. I mention this not only because Doris Dorrie’s Cherry Blossoms is clearly in dialogue with Tokyo Story , or perhaps to give props to McCarey’s lost masterpiece, but also because the sense of something special getting lost and forgotten over time is an overarching theme that links all three films.

Like its aforementioned predecessors, Cherry Blossoms begins with a happy, old couple who, upon visiting their grown children, begin to recognize the seemingly unbridgeable gap that has formed between them and their offspring, who have become increasingly selfish and callous. With one son working in Tokyo and the other two children busy with their own lives in Berlin, Rudi and Trudi have only their love for one another and the promise of fulfilling Trudi‘s dream of traveling to Japan. After a first act that sets up this generational disconnection, the film uses Trudi's sudden, unexpected death to branch off in a completely different direction, moving away from the dysfunctional family angle and towards a more intimate character study. As interesting as this particular structural conceit may seem on paper, Cherry Blossoms simply cannot keep its end of the bargain, leaving narrative threads hanging as it meanders through its more intimate, yet frustratingly obtuse, second half.

Finally summoning the courage to visit his son in Tokyo once Trudi has passed on, Rudi wanders aimlessly around the city, and the film slowly grinds to a halt. He attempts to fulfill his deceased wife’s dream of immersing herself in Japanese culture, particularly Butoh-style dance, but the burgeoning relationship he eventually develops with an 18-year-old street dancer leads to nothing but shallow revelations about his own feelings of loss and regret. Everything that transpired in the first half is essentially left in the dust, as the film uses a series of either inept (the young girl as surrogate for his “second chance”) or thuddingly obvious (a character literally explaining to Rudi the symbolic meaning of the cherry blossoms) metaphors to convey the simplistic sentiment that life waits for no one.

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Review: ‘Cherry Blossoms’

It’s extremely rare that a film is so good that it actually brings me to tears and ‘Cherry Blossoms’ came darn close. It’s not so much that the new film from writer/director Doris DÃ ¶rrie is sad, in fact the film ends up being quite the spirit lifter, but the story is told with so much heart that it’s impossible not to empathize with the characters.

‘Cherry Blossoms’ tells the story of Rudi Angermeier (Elmar Wepper), an aging man whose life consists of going to work in an office and coming home to his loving wife Trudi (Hannelore Elsner), day in and day out, without any sense of adventure in their marriage. During a doctors visit, Trudi learns that Rudi is terminally ill, but chooses not to let Rudi know. Instead, she convinces him to go with her on a trip to Berlin to visit their children. Their kids don’t have any time for them and, feeling they’re a burden on their kids, the couple travel to the Baltic to spend time on the beach.

During their stay, Trudi suddenly and unexpectedly dies in her sleep. Devastated by his loss of her, Rudi begins to truly discover his wife and her dreams for life only as he mourns her death. As the guilt of keeping Trudi from pursuing her dream of being a Butoh dancer weigh heavily on his heart, Rudi travels to stay with his son in Japan where he hopes to find closure. While exploring the busy streets of Tokyo, Rudi meets meets Yu (Aya Irizuki), a young Butoh dancer who he befriends and helps him to reconnect with his late wife.

‘Cherry Blossoms’ is a magnificent piece of storytelling. Visually, the film achieves an uncommon marriage between realism and fantasy. The movie often feels like a documentary without narration, but at the same time successfully delivers an element of subtle fantasy through it’s use of vividly colored locations and wonderful framing. So many of the shots and scenes in ‘Cherry Blossoms’ could have easily appeared in a photo spread for the National Geographic. The cinema verite style in which DÃ ¶rrie used perfectly captures the intimate nature of Rudi’s relationship first with his wife Trudi, then again his relationship with the youthful and wise Yu.

Shots of simple tranquility often move the story along in a constructive way without slowing the pace of this 127-minute masterpiece. At appropriate moments, a shot of kites flying, or hawks soaring or nature in it’s splendor treat the eye and emphasize the proper mood of the story. The acting in the film is superb, with the most accomplished moments occurring without spoken dialogue. Elmar Wepper gives a first-class performance of a man who goes through an immensely taxing emotional and psychological transformation. Hannelore Elsner delivers one of the most endearing performances I’ve seen in many years and even the young Aya Irizuki creates a character that is at once enigmatic and familiar.

‘Cherry Blossoms’ is already at the top of my “best films list” this year and may prove difficult for other films to overcome. I am already planning on re-watching the film as soon as possible in an attempt to absorb even more of it’s charm and bitter-sweet reflection on life and love. I highly recommend this movie, in fact I can’t recommend it enough! Anyone who calls themselves a fan of Akira Kurosawa films absolutely must see this movie. It invokes a similar sense of of storytelling as Kurosawa such as films like ‘Ikiru’, ‘Dreams’ and ‘Rhapsody in August’. ‘Cherry Blossoms’ is a feel good movie with a powerful story and a different kind of happy ending that we rarely see out of Hollywood.

‘Cherry Blossoms’ opens today in St. Louis at the Tivoli Theatre.

[Overall: 5 stars out of 5]

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Cherry Blossoms (2008)

Original title: kirschblüten - hanami.

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After finding out that her husband, Rudi, has a fatal illness, Trudi Angermeier arranges a trip to Berlin so they can see their children. Of course, the kids don't know the real reason they're visiting -- and the catch is, neither does Rudi...

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Keep Your Eyes on the Trees: An Essay on 1917 , the Most Profound Film Since Tree of Life

By Owen Strachan on May 7, 2020

Keep your eyes on the trees. —Schofield to Blake, 1917

The movie 1917 is a success by any measure. On a budget of about $100 million, it has grossed $368 million worldwide, and was nominated for 11 Academy Awards (winning one for cinematography). Director Sam Mendes set out to tell a story heard from his grandfather of a daring suicide mission in World War I, and that story in its cinematic form clearly resonated with viewers (some spoilers to come).

Not so much with critics, at least a good number of the highbrow kind. A few characteristic examples to follow. The Verge called 1917 a “brag trick,” summarizing the views of many reviewers who focused almost exclusively on its “one-shot” cinematography. The New Yorker characterized the film as one of “patriotic bombast.” The Atlantic spoke more plainly still: 1917 is “a bad movie” and a “soulless film.” No mincing of words, these (numerous other reviews argue much the same).

But is it a trick, bombast, bad, and soulless? Alfred Hitchcock once said that his films were like “a slice of cake,” a delicious treat without any real nutrients in them. Is 1917 mere frosting and butter as many critics have it? Mendes has certainly made his mark as a big-budget director. He is an accomplished craftsman of the Hitchcockian kind, adept at entertainment. But again, is that all 1917 is—a cute ode to now-outmoded hero quests?

Here is my own view: 1917 is the most profound major-market film to release in a very long time. The movie is at base a stirring philosophical meditation on the meaning of life; it is an aesthetic inquiry into the good, beautiful, and true. Yes, that sounds like the cake has been baked at a high temperature, I admit. In what follows, I (who earn no money doing film criticism, and justly so) will lay out my case for this view of Mendes’ film (featuring a screenplay of compressed eloquence by Krysty Wilson-Cairns). My thesis can be boiled down to three simple words:

The Importance of Trees

1917 is a film about trees. It begins with Schofield resting against a tree, and it ends with him resting against a tree. As quoted above, Mendes gives us the clue to his film over 30 minutes in, embedding it in dialogue that we might well miss after the shattering bunker scene. “Keep your eyes on the trees” is not a throwaway line, however (as Schofield says it, a lone tree stands tall in the background). We’re not learning through this eminently missable clue—I read many reviews of 1917 and found none that cited this dialogue—that trees are abstractly interesting. No, there is a much deeper philosophical point at work in 1917.

This quick sentence is in fact the very message of the film. Throughout the movie, where trees flourish, there is rest; conversely, where trees have been hacked and hewn to evil ends, there is ruin and pain. In a manner consistent with the lush arboreality represented by Frederick Law Olmsted in design, J.R.R. Tolkien in literature, and Terrence Malick in auteur cinema, Mendes (and Wilson-Cairns) are telling us something vital. I mean “vital” in the deep sense, not the cursory. Bearing fruit, trees “manifest life” (from the Latin vitalis, fourteenth-century origin). Trees show us something of the created order as designed by God: it was not fashioned for death, but for life.

To celebrate and enjoy trees is thus to partake deeply of what we Christians call common grace in this world, even a fallen world like ours. But using trees as implements of war (as the Germans do in 1917 in numerous places) speaks to a worldview that desacralizes the created order and the goodness it bears (Genesis 1:31). Nature stewarded in celebration of life yields still more goodness, while nature sublimated to purposes of needless destruction makes creation nothing less than a witness to hell.

Nowhere is this tension brought out in greater nuance than in the cherry tree scene. About 38 minutes in, Schofield happens upon a grove of them and says, “They’ve chopped them all down.” In the midst of a ferocious war, he stops cold to observe this act of savagery (the Germans have also shot cows and a dog, innocent creatures unjustly handled). Blake then notes what kind of trees they are: “Cherries. Lamberts.”

This next bit of dialogue is necessary to understanding the thesis of the film. Schofield doesn’t know anything about trees; like we all do, he beholds spectacular and intricately detailed beauty on a regular basis but takes no notice of it. Blake, a sensitive soul, notes that people think “there’s only one type” of cherry tree, “but there’s lots of them,” listing “Cuthberts, Queen Annes, Montmorencys, sweet ones, sour ones.” Blake is a witness here to the aforementioned limitless variety of creation. (As a quick aside that deserves more substantiation, I think that Blake may represent the Romantic poet William Blake, a figure who had a strange interaction with a soldier named Schofield in 1803. Blake the character is certainly Romantic in nature—he has a full-orbed emotional life and is aesthetically inclined.)

Blake is the character who opens not only Schofield’s eyes, but ours. Where we like Schofield see a tree, Blake sees a cherry tree; but more than this, he knows that there are many kinds of cherry trees, and that their variations yield myriad colors and textures and tastes. It is at this point that we arrive at Mendes’ major philosophical idea. Enlightened by Blake’s knowledge of trees, knowledge gleaned not from textbooks but from the rhythms of a happy family, Schofield expresses sadness about the desecration of this holy grove. In his optimistic way, Blake responds: “They’ll grow again when the stones rot. You’ll end up with more trees than before.”

Forgive me once more, but I saw nary a critic mention these sentences in numerous snarky “Mendes is a trick-shot director” reviews. I believe this particular comment from Blake spells out the case that 1917 quietly but persuasively makes. Man does terrible things to man, and to creation besides. But even with evil loose in the world, bringing desperate suffering to living things, beauty will win in the end. The glade is a cut-flower civilization in miniature, but the trees have lived and will grow again. This is too weak, actually: the cherry seeds—”stones”—will rot, but will grow back as trees in greater number than before, Blake says. The death of the grove means the flowering of a much greater forest. Transposed in theological terms, evil is not only overcome; evil’s purposes are turned on its head, and goodness expands in ironic fashion because of evil’s destructive schemes.

We shall return to this soaring (and deeply biblical) theme in due course, just as the film does.

The Rebuilding of the Family

I want to move ahead in the narrative, skipping much I could cover. Mendes returns to the theme of rebuilding in the ruins in the fiery French town occupied by German soldiers. After being shot and narrowly escaping death several times, and after one of the most stunning visual images I’ve yet seen in a film (a town enwreathed in flame that is both horrifying and transfixing), Schofield crashes into a basement dwelling. There he encounters a young woman who is keeping a baby alive. Schofield initially is barely able to respond to this pair as he is badly hurt. The young woman moves gracefully toward him and treats his head wound with a gentle feminine touch. She cares for him, the warrior come home to a patchwork family.

For his part, Schofield emerges from his shock and sacrificially gives his canteen of milk to the woman, who gives it to the child. He then warms up further still, engaging the baby and making her laugh. The young woman senses perceptively that he is a father (as indeed he is, we learn later). I wager that Mendes is communicating something meaningful in this scene. In the ruins, in surprising circumstances, the family is rebuilt. Here is the renewal that the world truly needs: not just a planting of trees, but the recovery of marriage, the union of one man and one woman, and the welcoming of children as a gift, not a curse.

It seems that the motif of trees forms the beginning and end motif of 1917 , and this family scene represents the inclusio (the main point bracketed by complementary ideas). The family scene is, in other words, the human expression of the cherry tree scene. Here is the replanting that the world truly needs. It needs men and women, husbands and wives, children loved and cared for, the family restored amidst much attack. Mendes seems to be communicating that this creation order has suffered violence, but that civilization can know healing. It will come through a renewal of the family.

To whatever degree they believe in the natural family (a far better term than our dreaded “nuclear family”), Mendes and Wilson-Cairns have landed on the foundational element of society. We are not born into isolation; we are born into families, at least in God’s design. The family is the first institution, grounded in covenantal marriage that is a picture of the Gospel love of Christ for his church (Ephesians 5:22-33). Even in the treacherous conditions of ferocious battle, the family endures. This short scene, generally mentioned as an oddity by many reviewers, speaks to a profound truth: civilization begins with the family.

Here the trees, so to speak, grow once more.

The Value of a Life

1917 brings its celebration of life to a muted peak in its final scene. Schofield, having lost Blake to an unjust death some hours back, meets Blake’s brother. Schofield and Lieutenant Blake struggle to speak to one another, but even as he delivers terrible news, Schofield performs a precious service. Schofield hands over some small effects of Blake’s. This quick action, easily overlooked, is actually a crucial development of Schofield’s character. Earlier in the movie, Schofield derided a medal he earned in a prior conflict for heroism. Just before the cherry tree scene, he tells Blake that he traded his medal for a bottle of wine. This got Blake’s blood up: “You should have taken it home,” he protests. “You should have given it to your family. Men have died for that. If I got a medal, I’d take it back home.”

Schofield spits back at Blake. “It’s just a bit of tin,” he says. “It doesn’t make any difference to anyone.” But Blake (just before his death) rises again to the challenge: “Yet it does. And it’s not just a bit of tin. And it’s got a ribbon on it.” This early scene anticipates the film’s last scene. At that point, walking into the cut-flower grove, Schofield is battle-hardened. He has lost touch with the good, true, and beautiful. He is by no means evil as the enemy is, but he is no longer able to be a witness to the deep value of life; he is simply surviving. But Blake is still alive, fully alive. He sees that the medal is not just tin; it speaks to the ideals that drive one to risk everything for the sake of the innocent and the threatened.

Notably, in this earlier scene Blake sees the medal as valuable in relation to family. (He adores his family, making it all the more poignant that we meet his brother in closing.) Valor in battle confers meaning on all the sacrifices made by both soldiers and loved ones. War is terrible, but men give everything they have in order to love and protect those who are also sacrificing much at home (who will be justly proud of warrior heroism). The “tin” itself is not worth anything great. But the medal symbolically captures all the hardship, courage, and sacrifice made by soldiers (and civilizations) for a greater good. It simultaneously has no real value and more value than words can convey.

In the end, tin is all that is left in earthly terms. But these effects, though small and insignificant, speak to the value of an entire existence. They tell us who this man was: Blake, a valiant soldier, one so merciful that he died trying to help a foe, a young man whose days on earth mattered . Every life matters. Every person has value, dignity, and worth. Here, I think, we behold a glimpse of the doctrine of the image of God in cinematic expression.

An Odyssey, But a Spiritual Odyssey More Than a Physical One

As mentioned above, the film closes with Schofield resting against a tree. For the first time, he lets himself look at pictures of his beautiful young wife and children. He alluded to his family in the “bit of tin” scene, but got choked up before he could say more. “I hated going home… when I knew I had to leave and they might never see…” At the end of this line, Schofield’s voice trails off. The pain is too great for him, so he goes silent. Here is his mentality early in 1917 : better to survive than despair.

In light of this resolution, we discover that 1917 is not only a “quest” in the classic sense, a man going on a grand adventure. It is that, but it is much more. Schofield himself has gone on a personal quest, yes, but has been changed by his personal odyssey. He is not the same man. He understands afresh just how much life matters. He felt this in a terrible way when Blake bled out on the ground; he felt this like an electric current as he ran to stop the doomed assault; he felt it when he handed over all that was left of a noble life; he feels it as he leans against a tree at the film’s end, looking over his pictures of his family. He has awakened once more to the goodness of the world. The survivor of almost impossible difficulty, Schofield is effectively brought back to full-fledged humanity by Blake. He is, you could say, reenchanted .

Mendes has signaled such a trajectory already. Recall what happened in the German barracks scene: after a terrific explosion (that nearly knocked me out of my IMAX seat), Schofield would certainly have died had Blake not pulled him out of the rubble. In the end, Blake—with the young woman and baby and the singer in the wooded glade—has pulled Schofield out of spiritual ruin as well. Though dead, Blake’s spirited and virtuous example has helped bring Schofield back from a kind of living death. Nearly dehumanized by war, Schofield’s epic quest has revealed that the world is not a machine. Existence is not merely a test of survival. The created order is not intended for consumption, least of all for mindless destruction. Evil is everywhere, but the cherry trees—representing civilization—will grow back, and in greater number. Goodness, truth, and beauty are all around us, and will be found in greater measure in the age to come.

It may well be that these commitments reflect for Mendes not a Christian worldview but a Romantic worldview. Yet as I surface this possibility, I cannot help but think of two intertwined concluding events. First, after surviving a terrible assault and a rushing river, Schofield is nearly dead. As Dan Phillips pointed out to me, cherry blossoms then fall on him and seem to revive him, enabling him to crawl over corpses and survive (a fulfillment of Blake’s words on regenerative cherry trees). Second, as Schofield staggers toward the battlefield, we hear these words from the “Wayfaring Stranger” song sung in the forest glade: “But golden fields lie just before me / Where God’s redeemed shall ever sleep.” Perhaps this is a sign that Mendes’ vision is not only Romantic, and that this is not simply a war movie, or a “quest” movie. It certainly is not a “one trick” movie, nor is it “soulless” or “bad” or “bombast” or a mere slice of cake. No, 1917 is a work of art. It is a beautiful film. It is a deceptively deep inquiry into the value of life, the treasured heritage of Western civilization, and the importance of martial courage. 1917 is, after Malick’s Tree of Life , the most profound film I have seen in some time.

This is a fitting reference with which to conclude. What did we hear early in 1917 , after all? “Keep your eyes on the trees.” How fitting, and how consonant with rich Christian theology. It was a tree misused that damned us. It was a tree fitted for torture that saved us. Like Schofield at the end of his journey, sitting in peace beneath a tree, a living thing that is itself a witness to the goodness of God’s creation, so it will be a tree’s leaves that heal us weary pilgrims in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:2).

Keep your eyes on the trees, indeed.

Owen Strachan is a theology professor at Midwestern Seminary and the author of Reenchanting Humanity: A Doctrine of Mankind and coauthor of the brand-new sexuality trilogy .

Providence is the only publication devoted to Christian Realism in American foreign policy and is entirely funded by donor contributions. There are no advertisements, sponsorships, or paid posts to support the work of Providence , just readers who generously partner with Providence to keep our magazine running. If you would care to make a donation it would be highly appreciated to help Providence in advancing the Christian realist perspective in 2024. Thank you!

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Cherry Blossoms & Demons – VIFF 2019 Review

Eleven years ago at VIFF 2008 (where does the time go?) there was a fair bit of praise falling like confetti on writer-director Doris Dörrie’s plaintive and heartfelt drama Cherry Blossoms. An East-West culture clash story with a lackadaisical pace, sumptuous visuals and a peculiar poetry to it all as Dörrie rendered a slow goodbye between long-married couple Rudi (Elmar Wepper) and Trudi (Hannelore Elsner). Her new film, Cherry Blossoms & Demons is a well-meaning but often overworked supernatural sequel centering on Rudi and Trudi’s adult son Karl (Golo Euler).

Not so long ago Karl was an outstanding professional but he’s fallen on hard times; the bottle and deep depression. When he shows up unannounced, panda-masked and three sheets to the wind at his estranged daughter’s birthday party, it’s obvious that he’s utterly out of control and in need of help. Help appears in odd ways for Karl, first in the hard-to-make-out form of a ghost that scares him silly and then in the form of Rudi’s butoh dancing companion from the previous film, Yu (Aya Irizuki). Rudi isn’t particularly pleased to have Yu resurface as his salvation considering she was the biggest beneficiary of his dad’s will.

From here things grow even more muddled as Yu guides Karl back to his family home and ultimately back to Japan before the whole tale plays out and wears out. Thankfully the convoluted course of the film is salvaged rather sweetly by the late Kirin Kiki (this was her final film before she lost her long battle with cancer last year) as Yu’s grandmother. Her scenes, while maudlin at time, are also an absolute delight.

Fans of Dörrie’s first film are bound to appreciate many aspects of this restless and often recherché spin-off, but it’s an inconsistent experience. Sometimes it feels like Jodorowsky-lite and then a sequence of tired Freudian psychology spoils the mood. The messy spirituality and cribbing from Kurosawa’s Ikiru serves to remind us that that’s a far better film, and there’s ample misuse of other tropes (a femme fatale/manic pixie mashup doesn’t help much).

Apart from the aforementioned scenes with the esteemed Kiki, the dance sequences are beautifully choreographed and performed, and that may be more than enough for filmgoers to appreciate and overlook the disparity that haunts and hinders Cherry Blossoms & Demons.

Taste of Cinema Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Author Bio: Shane Scott-Travis is a film critic, screenwriter, comic book author/illustrator and cineaste. Currently residing in Vancouver, Canada, Shane can often be found at the cinema, the dog park, or off in a corner someplace, paraphrasing Groucho Marx. Follow Shane on Twitter @ShaneScottravis.

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Washington’s Cherry Blossoms Reach Near-Record Early Bloom

A warm winter ushered the blossoms through the bloom cycle faster than usual, a spokesman for the National Park Service said.

By Christine Hauser

The signature cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C., have arrived early after a warm winter, matching the second-earliest peak bloom in more than a century of record-keeping.

“PEAK BLOOM! PEAK BLOOM! PEAK BLOOM! Did we say PEAK BLOOM?!” the National Park Service announced on Sunday , trumpeting the arrival of the delicate flowering.

“The cherry blossoms are popping!” the Park Service said. “Gorgeous clouds of white and pink blossoms ring the Tidal Basin, creating a splendid spring spectacle. Come enjoy the beauty.”

More than 1.5 million people descend on the Tidal Basin, a reservoir wedged between the National Mall and the Potomac River, each spring to meander among the hundreds of the Japanese flowering trees as they burst into color, usually around the end of March.

The Park Service had originally estimated that Washington’s cherry blossoms would reach full blossom on March 23. But after an unusually warm winter, the trees reached peak bloom — in case the Park Service statement wasn’t clear enough — early.

About a week early, to be precise.

The flowers usually burst forth between the last week of March and the first week of April, according to the Park Service. Peak bloom is defined as the moment when 70 percent of the blossoms on the trees surge open.

But nature can mess with the predictability of the unfurling.

Temperatures that are warmer than normal or cooler than usual have shifted the timeline over the years. The earliest peak bloom since 1921, when record-keeping began, was in 1990, when it arrived on March 15.

Peak bloom has come as late as April 18, in 1958, two months after more than 14 inches of snow fell in the Washington area followed by a nor’easter on March 21, National Weather Service figures show .

Temperatures were above average in the first three months of this year, meteorology data shows , driving an early bloom that matched the second-earliest recorded peak bloom, on March 17, 2000.

But this is the fastest that the blossoms have gone through the five stages of the bloom cycle, and a warming climate has been a factor, Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the Park Service, said in an interview on Monday.

“The warmer it is, the faster the trees will blossom,” he said.

The Park Service predicts the great blossom reveal its so-called bloom watch , as its horticulturists record signs of buds and florets as they develop, emerge and extend. The Trust for the National Mall has installed a “ bloom cam ” that monitors the trees and picks up the slow strolling of visitors along the sun-dappled walkways beneath the flower-laden boughs.

The scrutiny is of little surprise considering the narrow window for visitors to experience the blooms in their full glory. The trees typically bloom for several days, but cool weather can extend the length of the bloom. Rainy or windy days can bring an abrupt end to the ephemeral blossoms.

A late frost can prevent the trees from blooming at all, the Park Service said.

On social media, where the cherry blossoms are a popular feature , would-be visitors traded hopes of getting to Washington in time now that the peak had come earlier than the March 23 projection.

The Park Service announced last week that about 140 of the cherry trees will be chopped down starting in May in preparation for the construction of taller sea walls to protect the area around the Jefferson Memorial. There are 3,800 cherry trees around the Tidal Basin and in the adjoining West Potomac Park.

Christine Hauser is a reporter, covering national and foreign news. Her previous jobs in the newsroom include stints in Business covering financial markets and on the Metro desk in the police bureau. More about Christine Hauser

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DC’s cherry blossoms hit their second-earliest peak bloom on record

Washington, D.C.’s, signature cherry blossoms tied for their second earliest peak bloom record on Sunday.

“PEAK BLOOM! PEAK BLOOM! PEAK BLOOM! Did we say PEAK BLOOM?! The blossoms are opening & putting on a splendid spring spectacle. See you soon,” the National Park Service (NPS) for the National Mall  wrote on X , the platform formerly known as Twitter.

NPS  previously estimated  that the peak bloom for the cherry blossoms in the nation’s capital would be March 23-26. Peak bloom is the date when 70 percent of the yoshino cherry tree blossoms are open around the Tidal Basin.

NPS noted  that peak bloom  for the cherry blossoms is typically between the last week of March and the first week of April, with variance based mostly on late winter temperatures. However, mild temperatures in D.C. in recent weeks likely contributed to the early peak bloom date.

Last year’s peak bloom date was also earlier than normal, with the peak bloom occurring on March 23. In 2022, peak bloom was recorded on March 21.

According to NPS, the earliest peak bloom date was March 15,1990. Data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows that the second earliest peak bloom date on record was March 17, 2000, which means that the 2024 peak bloom date is tied for the second earliest date,  according to data  from NPS and the EPA.

This year’s peak bloom came before the National Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. started. The festival, which typically garners large crowds of tourists, is scheduled for March 20 to April 14 and will have events and performances commemorating the cherry trees  gifted to the U.S.  by Japan in 1912.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

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