The Last Blossom Review – A Yakuza member faces his final reckoning in anime influence | film

AAn original story by director Baku Kinoshita and writer Kazuya Konomoto, this is the kind of quiet, contemplative anime film that rarely gets a theatrical release. Shrouded in dusk, the film begins in an isolated prison cell, home to elderly former yakuza member Akutsu. Now on his deathbed, he finds an unexpected best friend in… the talking balsam. (Legend has it that only newborns and dying children can talk to the plant.) Over the course of one sleepless night, his life story unfolds in fits and starts.

Thirty years ago, another balsam also grows in the backyard of Akutsu’s modest home, which he shares with Nana and her young son, Kensuke. The relationship between the taciturn man and the bubbly young woman seems platonic. Kensuke is not his son. However, there are hints of romantic attraction; They share bowls of hot ramen noodles, play endless rounds of Reversi, and join in on an arrangement of Ben E King’s classic “Stand By Me.”

In contrast to this alternative nuclear family, the yakuza world remains quite traditional, revolving around masculinity and rules of brotherhood. When Kensuke is diagnosed with a heart condition, Akutsu is drawn into a criminal conspiracy, which results in him being imprisoned. Although it contains plenty of bloodshed and even a subplot of hidden treasure, The Last Blossom is most affecting as an exploration of the human conscience, where the capacity for violence and kindness coexist. This irony is reminiscent of director Shohei Imamura’s Palme d’Or-winning The Eel, starring Koji Yakusho as a wife murderer who harbors a pregnant woman after being released from prison. With his humble voice, in stark contrast to his flamboyant yakuza peers, Akutsu bears a striking resemblance to Yakusho’s protagonist. Although a minor work compared to Imamura’s, The Last Flower similarly questions traditional notions of justice, and the impossibility of balancing one’s good and bad actions.