There is always something searing about raw footages from natural disasters. It is always the survivors and/or those who just happened to witness it are the ones recording the very nature of what happens when Mother Nature destructs. We are the only the bystanders shocked at what we see from the news, they are the ones who first saw it up close.
Or in this case, the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami which hit Japan, and the local residents recording raw footages from afar, but still able to witness the impending destruction of their hometown. It really hits home for them when they realised they are actually about to witness their hometown being destroyed by the impending tsunami, from the raw footages with the locals speaking of their reactions which opened this documentary as produced by Kira Carstensen and directed by documentary filmmaker Lucy Walker.
The documentary complements with locals speaking how the tsunami affects them, along with ordinary Japanese young and old on what the cherry blossom means to them. Spring time is usually a time of admiring cherry blossoms in Japan, but that particular year's cherry blossom season has an added tinge of poignancy with the cameras in one scene showing a sign in a Tokyo park reminding residents of observing sensitivity to those affected by the earthquake and tsunami.
While one cannot help but be amazed at how ordinary Japanese view the cherry blossom and what it says of the Japanese psyche in especially during those times, it is especially those hardest hit by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that their stories really hits you. It really stood out for me personally on how the cameras would pan the images of photographs, in the midst of what the destruction had left behind – the human cost. Photographs of a couple getting married, of two school friends whether the owners to those photographs are alive, nobody knows.
We are often being told how Mother Nature can be destructive when she wants to be, but in such moments we may have forgotten the beauty of what she has left behind in this world as well, as depicted by the ordinary Japanese who spoke on the documentary reflecting on the cherry blossom season with the added tinge of the nature of destruction Mother Nature had left behind back in March 2011.
Or in this case, the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami which hit Japan, and the local residents recording raw footages from afar, but still able to witness the impending destruction of their hometown. It really hits home for them when they realised they are actually about to witness their hometown being destroyed by the impending tsunami, from the raw footages with the locals speaking of their reactions which opened this documentary as produced by Kira Carstensen and directed by documentary filmmaker Lucy Walker.
The documentary complements with locals speaking how the tsunami affects them, along with ordinary Japanese young and old on what the cherry blossom means to them. Spring time is usually a time of admiring cherry blossoms in Japan, but that particular year's cherry blossom season has an added tinge of poignancy with the cameras in one scene showing a sign in a Tokyo park reminding residents of observing sensitivity to those affected by the earthquake and tsunami.
While one cannot help but be amazed at how ordinary Japanese view the cherry blossom and what it says of the Japanese psyche in especially during those times, it is especially those hardest hit by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that their stories really hits you. It really stood out for me personally on how the cameras would pan the images of photographs, in the midst of what the destruction had left behind – the human cost. Photographs of a couple getting married, of two school friends whether the owners to those photographs are alive, nobody knows.
We are often being told how Mother Nature can be destructive when she wants to be, but in such moments we may have forgotten the beauty of what she has left behind in this world as well, as depicted by the ordinary Japanese who spoke on the documentary reflecting on the cherry blossom season with the added tinge of the nature of destruction Mother Nature had left behind back in March 2011.
