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SAKURA GUARDIAN IN THE NORTH

KITA NO SAKURAMORI

By Yojiro TAKITA

TOEI COMPANY, LTD. - as SALES All rights

Epic - Completed 2017

1945, cherry blossomed in Sakhalin. Tetsu and her son, Shujiro fleed from Sakhalin because of the Soviet Union's invasion. They barely managed to survive in Hokkaido. In 1971, Shujiro has succeeded as president of hotdog shops, but Tetsu still suffer post-traumattic stress disorder from the war.

- Year of production
- 2017
- Genres
- Epic, Family, Drama
- Countries
- JAPAN
- Languages
- JAPANESE
- Budget
- 10 - 25 M$
- Director(s)
- Yojiro TAKITA
- Writer(s)
- Machiko NASU
- Cast
- Sayuri YOSHINAGA, Masato SAKAI, Hiroshi ABE, Ryoko SHINOHARA, Ittoku KISHIBE, Koichi SATO, Tsurube SHOFUKUTEI
- Producer(s)
- Riuko TOMINAGA (TOEI COMPANY, LTD.)
- Synopsis
- In the spring of 1945, cherry blossoms flower in southern Sakhalin. For Tetsu Ezure and her sons, they symbolize hope. But the following August, the Soviet Union invades and they flee from Sakhalin. Barely managing to make it across the strait to Hokkaido, they make their way down the coast to Abashiri. Awaiting the battered family there is a life so harsh as to strain the imagination: cold and hunger through which they must struggle to survive.
  In 1971 the younger son, Shujiro, now grown, has succeeded in the U.S., and returns to Japan as president of a chain of hotdog outlets. He returns to Abashiri for the first time in 15 years to find his older brother gone and his elderly mother living alone in poverty, still waiting for her husband to return. Shujiro decides to take her to Sapporo and care for her there.
  There Tetsu, however, insists on cooking rice over an open fire, taking onions from the greengrocer without paying, and generally making a nuisance of herself to the neighborhood. While the war is long over, she still suffers post-traumatic stress disorder. She also gradually realizes that something is wrong with her.
  Then one day she disappears. Not wishing to cause problems for her successful son, she is going back to Abashiri. But her house there has been demolished; she has nowhere to go back to. Shujiro, in an effort to reach out, decides to accompany her, and the two set out around the vast plains of Hokkaido on a journey into the past. The journey, however, opens the door to some long-buried memories.