Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (2007)

Original title

夕凪の街 桜の国

Directed by

Kiyoshi Sasabe

Genre

historical fiction

Country

Japan

Runtime

1h 58m

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 1 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Two connected stories follow a family of survivors from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The film shows the lingering emotional and physical effects of the bombing on their lives years later.

poignantquietmelancholicreflectivetendersolemnslow-pacedintimate

What happens

Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (Japanese: 夕凪の街 桜の国, Hepburn: Yūnagi no Machi, Sakura no Kuni) is a one-volume manga written and illustrated by Fumiyo Kōno. The two connected stories were first published in Japan by Futabasha in Weekly Manga Action in 2003 and 2004, then collected in a single tankōbon volume in 2004. The story is about a family of survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The author based the characters on people who were in Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms was adapted as a live-action film directed by Kiyoshi Sasabe released in 2007, called Yunagi City, Sakura Country in English. It has also been adapted as a 2006 radio drama, as 2007 novels by Kei Kunii and Yohei Makita, as a 2017 stage play and as a 2018 television special. The manga has received international praise for its simple but beautiful artwork and its quiet but "humane" anti-war message. It received the Grand Prize for manga at the 2004 Japan Media Arts Festival and the 2005 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Creative Award. Kumiko Asō won several acting awards for her portrayal of Minami Hirano, one of the two protagonists, in the film adaptation. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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