Casting Blossoms to the Sky

Casting Blossoms to the Sky
Film poster
Japanese name
Kanji	この空の花　長岡花火物語
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Kono sora no hana: Nagaoka hanabi monogatari
Directed by	Nobuhiko Ôbayashi
Written by	Nobuhiko Ohbayashi
Starring	Yasuko Matsuyuki Masahiro Takashima Masao Kusakari
Music by	Kousuke Yamashita
Production company	PSC
Distributed by	Toho
Release date	7 April 2012 (2012-04-07) (Japan)
Running time	160 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Casting Blossoms to the Sky (Japanese: この空の花　長岡花火物語, Hepburn: Kono sora no hana: Nagaoka hanabi monogatari) is a 2012 Japanese drama film directed by Nobuhiko Ôbayashi.^[1]

In the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, a journalist is invited to Nagaoka by her ex-boyfriend, a schoolteacher who is directing a play about how the city was decimated by a WWII air raid and the 2004 Chūetsu earthquake. She travels to the city to report on the disaster and perhaps to meet the ex-boyfriend. While there, she learns about the experiences of its inhabitants and stumbles upon a stage play written by an enigmatic student. The film tells the story of the city, its people and the various Japanese views of war (past and present).

• Casting Blossoms to the Sky at IMDb