This is a wonderful film even though it has misogynistic undertones, but I guess we need to make concessions for the time period that it depicts. Sakura Nishi is a naive nurse who gets thrown in the middle of a war which she is too young to really understand or care about. On her first night shift she gets raped by the recovering soldiers. Even so, she does not lose her humanity. She helps the soldiers in every possible way & I mean every possible way! Unfortunately, her help makes a soldier realize what he would be missing for the rest of his life, leading to a tragedy that she holds herself accountable for. She falls in love with a doctor who has become addicted to morphine in a bid to get some sleep after the daily horror of deciding who gets amputated & who gets left to die. She even follows him to the frontlines of the war just so that she can be with him.
The movie masterfully portrays the tragedies of the comfort women & of the younger nurse who gets shell shocked.
Oddly, Sakura (Cherry blossom, which is actually very short-lived) is the only character who survives the ordeal at the end!
Overall, a great movie. The female protagonist is a bit too good for my taste, but I do understand her motivations.
The movie masterfully portrays the tragedies of the comfort women & of the younger nurse who gets shell shocked.
Oddly, Sakura (Cherry blossom, which is actually very short-lived) is the only character who survives the ordeal at the end!
Overall, a great movie. The female protagonist is a bit too good for my taste, but I do understand her motivations.