Japanese Film Fest!

Today I caught 2 Japanese Film Fest Shows!

SAKURAN: Trailer below.
I don't know why some people didn't like this movie (in some online reviews). I thought it was great. Besides some overly sensual parts (which I think were tasteful as part of the show and the whole background)... it was a great story! You follow the life of kiyora, and how she eventually finds real love. Well, cliched as it sounds, the whole movie keeps you captivated, with superb soundtrack, lush colour, fast movement, character development... etc. You see kiyora moving from a defiant young girl with no way out, to being challenged, later falling in love, being betrayed, learning how to get her way in life (aka survive), achieving success in many ways, then suffering grief, and eventually finding a true love and choosing the path she really wants to live by. It was beautiful, if you ask me.



The MOURNING FOREST:

This on the contrast was a bit too meditative for me, especially after watching the more fast-paced 'sakuran'. But it was still a good show after all. Love the scenes of the forest and the winds blowing through... so magical. It's about life, death, and the period of mourning that people go through when they lose someone dear to them. The 2 main characters were an elderly man, who has been mourning for his wife for the last 33 years... and a young nurse who has just lost her young son.

This was a bit anti-climax for me, coz i was lookin for some magical journey but what we get is a complete minimum dialogue kinda show... and you are left wondering whether the young nurse and the elderly man can really understand each other. The touching bits come when during times of crisis, they are there for each other... and you just get drawn to the notion of pure love, pure support. It is a lovely film actually if not for the previous movie i caught which was so "rich" in senses.. ahahaha...

Anyway, I liked the very very last bit -- where they displayed the word "Mogari" and how it means mourning. I was wondering what is the whole film trying to say, but that one word sums it all. That at the end of the day, the elderly man and the nurse are simply goin thru that period of mourning. And at the end of the film, it had come to an end (kinda inferred).... and that left a pleasant taste in the mouth.