Dir. KINOSHITA Baku
2025 | 90 mins | Japan | Japanese with English subtitles
KOBAYASHI Kaoru, TOZUKA Junki, MITSUSHIMA Hikari, MIYAZAKI Yoshiko

Showing Times

• Fri 22 May: 8pm
• Sat 23 May: 8pm

Returning after a successful preview as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme earlier this year, The Last Blossom is a tender anime by director KINOSHITA Baku that explores love and life’s changes in a way that everybody can resonate with.

A man with a criminal past seeks a new beginning in life — but can he really become someone beyond himself?

AKUTSU Minoru is an elderly man serving a life sentence. As he awaits a lonely death in his prison cell the only real sign of life is a potted balsam flower — hosenka in Japanese. One night, Minoru begins sharing his life story with the flower — and, improbably, it starts talking back. Through their conversations, Minoru recalls his past and reflects on the meaning of his life.

Minoru Akatsu, an elderly prisoner serving life in prison, reflects on his final summer of freedom in 1986. A gentle, stoic man, he lived a peaceful life with a woman and her son, surrounded by Housenka flowers. This peace is short-lived, however; when money flows in, so does trouble. As death approaches, a Housenka flower growing in his cell guides Akatsu through the gut-wrenching memories of his past as a yakuza.

BBFC Rating
Rated 15 – brief strong violence, bloody images

Venue: Studio 74, Exeter Phoenix

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