Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2013

Atsushi Funahashi has blossomed into one of the filmmakers to watch in Japan. His lauded 2005 film Big River was shot in the US and 2009’s Deep in the Valley garnered praise as well.

Sakura Namiki No Mankai No Shita Ni was scheduled to be shot in 2011, but the disasters of that year led him to shoot the documentary Nuclear Nation instead. The present work is also influenced by the tragedies and indeed has a mournful undertone.

In Hitachi City in Ibaraki, which suffered from the tsunami, workers at a local metal factory are dejected and cynical after the disaster. One ray of hope is Kenji (You Takahashi), whose good work has won the factory a contract. When he is killed in an accident caused by Takumi (Takahiro Miura), Kenji’s widow Shiori (Asami Usuda) is beside herself with grief and rage. The entire workforce despises Takumi but Shiori comes to sympathize with him. Could this tenderness turn into deeper feelings? Affecting and subtle, the film is another emotional tour de force by Funahashi, using sakura to symbolize the fleeting, transient nature of beauty and love.

English title: Cold Bloom; 120 min