Yûnagi no machi sakura no kuni

Last year I was browsing through a store in Hiroshima and came across a manga called Yuunagi No Machi, Sakura no Kuni. I flipped through it and the story appealed to me. On the train ride home i read it and got my phone out for some additional info and found that this movie was made.

After seeing it I was first pleasantly surprised and then unpleasantly shocked.

While the first part stays pretty close to the written story, with excellent acting, good casting and a deep meaning and feeling (pro- Japan, anti-war etc) the second part was terrible. The book itself consists of three parts where "Town of Cherry Blossoms makes up 2 parts). The first part is mainly the "flashbacks" from the movie, playing baseball, giving her Nagio a cherry blossom shower etc. The second part is the "chase dad on his crazy hyjinx" part.

I found the second part of the movie quite bad, the casting was off, the acting was cheesy and the setting was odd (although accurate, having been there just a day earlier).

The 7 I gave this movie comes from a 9 for the first part, and a 5 from the second part.

I will not go in on the political message too much. I think it's fine, the comic book is even harsher, roughly translated they say "It's been 10 years. I wonder if the people who dropped the atomic bomb are pleased with themselves- Yes! Got another one!"

I think the movie raises a valid point about the American atrocities done to the Japanese people (hello Russia, this is Yankee doodle, look at what we got!).

As a final word, good movie, go get it. Buy the DVD and watch it.

"Yunagi no machi sakurano no kuni" is probably the best movie ever focused on Hiroshima and WWII tragedy. But it is too real and explicit for some American audiences—in another words, it is too offensive for them. Probably that is why I can't find the DVD with English subtitle. Because it is too offensive to the American public, it could cause a friction between two nations. The previous commentator has probably good intent, but he or she is too ignorant. Japan went to war because she could end up a colony where non-white people populate like the rest of Asia if she listened to US demand in the eve of WWII. So she made a choice to go to war to defend her sovereign and liberate the other Asian nations from the oppression of American and European colonists. But during her pass of the warfare and even before, the Japanese subjugated the Chinese and the Korean as the second class citizen while they sent lots of sympathy to the Jew and the Southeast Asians, including to Indians. This double standard caused tragedy and misunderstanding. Just like pro and con, Japan did right thing and also bad thing. We have been under the American's War Guilt information System—the US propaganda since the end of WWII. We have lots of "America Kabures"—Japanese blindly followers on US. Typically, the Japanese loves to talk about the US, but no other countries. Actually, they are afraid of US or very sensitive to what the US thinks about us. As a result, even in Hiroshima, although Americans are the ones dropped the Atomic Bomb, the survivors and the children of the survivors have never publicly condemned the US government or the American populace. It is hypocrisy. This movie clearly stated that those wished me to be dead and it took 13 years to kill me. It is obvious that those are the Americans. That is why this movie has significant impact on people who have good conscience. Again, this movie is made extremely well. I highly encourage you to distribute this movie DVD with English subtitle.