Calling this gorgeous film from director Kon Ichikawa a ‘soap opera’ makes it sound like a bad thing, but it’s so well crafted and well-acted that it raises the sometimes sappy story to the level of art. And that’s a good thing. It follows the adventures of four sisters who meet every year in Kyoto to see the cherry blossoms bloom. On the year the story takes place, though, the lives the sisters lead away from their family tradition are simply to turbulent to set aside for a walk in the country. The fact that their country is at war (the story takes place in the years leading up to the Pacific War) is woven into the sisters’ stories in subtle, but provocative ways, as are the generational differences of the siblings, some of who are clinging onto their traditions as a way to stabilize their life, and others who reject tradition as they search for a different way of living.
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