2012
Casting Blossoms to the Sky
Directed by NOBUHIKO ÔBAYASHI
Starring YASUKO MATSUYUKI, AKIRA EMOTO, MASAYUKI YUI
Blu-ray/DVD
Released 5 AUGUST
Nobuhiko Ôbayashi believed firmly in cinema’s capacity to change the world. This is evident in all his films, from the fantastical (Hausu, 1977) to the ordinary (Beijing Watermelon, 1989), but it surfaces most prominently, and earnestly, in the late films: his “anti-war trilogy” and his final epic, Labyrinth of Cinema (2019), among the most ambitious, inventive films ever made. Casting Blossoms to the Sky (2012), the first in that trilogy, displays this from the get-go, switching breathlessly between fiction, documentary and live theatre modes, and employing animation, CGI, matte painting, and more to tell an impassioned, empathetic story on the impact and aftereffects of war.
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