Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (夕凪の街 桜の国, Yūnagi no machi, sakura no kuni?) is a one-volume manga written and illustrated by Fumiyo Kōno. The two connected stories were first published in Japan by Futabasha in Weekly Manga Action in 2003 and 2004, then collected in a single tankōbon volume in 2004. The story is about a family of survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The author based the characters on people who were in Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms was adapted as a live-action film directed by Kiyoshi Sasabe released in 2007, called Yunagi City, Sakura Country in English. It has also been adapted as a novel by Kei Kunii and as a radio drama produced in 2006.
The manga has received international praise for its simple but beautiful artwork and its quiet but "humane" anti-war message. It received the Grand Prize for manga at the 2004 Japan Media Arts Festival and the 2005 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Creative Award. Kumiko Aso won several acting awards for her portrayal of Minami Hirano, one of the two protagonists, in the film adaptation.
Read more about Town Of Evening Calm, Country Of Cherry Blossoms: Plot, Development, Reception
Famous quotes containing the words town, evening, country, cherry and/or blossoms:
“Speak the speech ... trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it ... I had as lief the town crier had spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and as I may say the whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“[T]hat moment of evening when the light and the darkness are so evenly balanced that the constraint of day and the suspense of night neutralize each other, leaving absolute mental liberty. It is then that the plight of being alive becomes attenuated to its least possible dimensions.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“Brutus. How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport,
That now on Pompey’s basis lies along,
No worthier than the dust!
Cassius. So oft as that shall be,
So often shall the knot of us be called
The men that gave their country liberty.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I think it was your cherry pies.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke?
I’m trying to come to the point.
I refuse to give up my obsession.
America stop pushing I know what I’m doing.
America the plum blossoms are falling.”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)