Director : Sasabe Kiyoshi

Cast

Rena Tanaka … Nanami Ishikawa
Kumiko Aso … Minami Hirano
Yû Yoshizawa … Yutaka Uchikoshi – young
Noriko Nakagoshi … Toko Tone
Mitsunori Isaki … Asahi Ishikawa – young
Yuta Kanai … Nagio Ishikawa
Ryosei Tayama … Yutaka Uchikoshi – adult
Urara Awata … Kyoka Ota
Shiho Fujimura … Fujimi Hirano
Masaaki Sakai … Asahi Ishikawa – adult

Plot

Adapted from Kono Fumiyo’s award-winning manga, Yunagi no Machi Sakura no Kuni (a.k.a. Yunagi City, Sakura Country) is the story of two young women living in different times, and the unforgettable historical memory that connects them. Director Sasabe Kiyoshi follows up his WWII drama Sea Without Exit with a sensitive portrayal of postwar life under the shadow of the war experience and the atomic bomb. Divided into two sections – “Town of Evening Calm” and “Country of Cherry Blossom” – the film alternates between 1955 Hiroshima and the present-day with Tanaka Rena (Waiting in the Dark) and Hochi Film Award Best Actress Aso Kumiko (Kairo) in the leading roles.

Atomic bomb survivor Hirano Minami (Aso Kumiko) knows all too well life’s bitter brevity. She lost her father and sisters to the bomb and radiation poisoning, and has not seen her brother since he was evacuated years ago. She takes hesitant steps toward first love with her coworker (Yoshizawa Yu, Night of the Shooting Stars), but happiness and normalcy are elusive in the atmosphere of postwar Hiroshima. Decades later, Ishikawa Nanami (Tanaka Rena) travels to Hiroshima to find out the reason by her father’s frequent mysterious trips to the city. There she slowly retraces the story of a young woman whose life has affected hers in more ways than she realized.

Download

• CD 1
• CD 2
• English Subtitle: not yet