Sakura No Sono (The Cherry Orchard)

This 1990 Japanese movie directed by Shun Nakahara and based on Akimmi Yoshida’s manga, tells the story of a strict all-girls school anniversary and a play, Anton Chechov’s The Cherry Orchard, the drama club has prepared to continue their annual tradition. But also tells the most wonderful story of the crush Yuko Shimizu has for Yuboko and Chiyodo’s jealousy as she has a crush on Yuko.

This film gave me the feeling of watching a play as most scenes start-end like in a theater play, which was great, as there is abundance of dialogue spoken at the very fast pace of teenage girls. One of the most outstanding scenes is when Yuko and Yuboko are dressed in early 20th century gowns and take shots together, as becomes one of the most beautiful and naturally sensual scenes shared by two women on screen.

As it happens in every threesome, the story could have been a tragedy (remember Lost and Delirious?!) but the director chose to end it with an non-climax, which just was great as deleted scenes suggest that the story could have gone the same way as Lost and Delirious.

This movie is the winner of 11 awards and had 3 nominations in several Japanese awards in 1990 and 1991, most for Best Film, Best Director and Best New Actress for Hiroko Nakajima that plays Yuko Shimizu. Looks it got recognition within Japan and probably if they promoted it outside the East countries circuit, it could have achieved more honors.

This is a very refreshing movie. Enjoy!