April Story

 

(I translated Korean to English with the help of AI.) 

(There are spoilers for the movie "April Story".)
There are movies that come to mind when a specific month arrives. When it comes to "April," the movie that definitely comes to mind is "April Story." Shunji Iwai has many excellent works, including the most famous one, "Love Letter." When I think, "Should I watch a Shunji Iwai movie today?", the movie I choose most easily is "April Story." There are various reasons for this, but the biggest reason is its short running time. It's a 67-minute film.

It feels like long, lengthy movies have been popping up everywhere since some point. When I get tired of long running time movies, watching "April Story" makes me realize anew how great it is to enjoy a film without fatigue. It's not like you can't feel cinematic emotion in a short amount of time. Rather, it's an emotional explosion. That's where this movie excels. Of course, there might be complaints like, "It ends just when it's about to get interesting." I felt that way too when I first watched it.


The movie "Love Letter" is dominated by the image of rain. The scene above depicts an incident involving an umbrella on a day when it suddenly rained. Rain, an umbrella, and the scenery where the person you longed to see is... The image of rain captivates the audience's eyes from the very beginning of the movie. Cherry blossom rain pours down.

Not long after the movie begins, the cherry blossom scene of April unfolds. In the scene above, a bride and her entourage heading to a wedding ceremony are visible. Cherry blossom petals fall like rain among the bride in her white Japanese traditional attire. The main character also moves to a new place while being showered by that cherry blossom rain.

April, a time when cherry blossoms are in full bloom... The movie "April Story" makes it impossible not to love April. It reminds us once again how wonderful a "beginning" is. Isn't it that the movie leaves only the beginning and doesn't show the result, implying that the beginning is more important than the outcome? You don't necessarily have to start only in April. You can start right now. There's no need to worry too much about the results.

"Link to the Korean original"

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