Casting Blossoms to the Sky

Nagaoka, the home to one of Japan’s most celebrated summer fireworks festivals, has a tragic past: decimated by a WWII air raid, a 2004 earthquake, and, most recently, the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. The legendary Japanese auteur Nobuhiko Obayashi (Hausu) turns this history into a kaleidoscopic film—part essay, part history lesson, part drama. When a journalist arrives in the wake of the city’s latest catastrophe, she uncovers the stories, resilience, and hope embedded in a plagued city in a film that ripples with optimism, joy, and awe-inducing imagery.