This movie was deeply touching. It is a movie about how a man copes with mourning, about the impermanence of being and the permanence of memories, still very funny in places, and often very tender. Equal amounts of laughter and nose-blowing in the audience, an audience which was very silent and in thought in the end of the movie. I appreciated: the great acting in this very well-cast movie, with outstanding Elmar Wepper and Hannelore Elsner but including the very fitting supporting cast - the artful to-the-point wording - the quiet yet well-timed pace of scenes and shots - how very well the movie conveyed the feeling of loss - the use of background scenes that carry meaning which unobtrusively reflects the foreground action (e.g. marching duck, sand castles washed away, fly trapped by window glass without being aware of it etc.) - the contrast of the inner search of a man for happiness leading him to consequential, necessary and healing actions that are being perceived as ridiculous or crazy by outsiders who do not share his perspective. I was shocked to some extent by a funeral scene near the end of the movie. 1 point off for some slight lengths in the middle of the movie - but then weren't these lengths somehow fitting as the main character had just then reached a dead end in his life?
Review of Cherry Blossoms
