FLY WITH THE CRANE

...is a film about a old man in Japan who is very against and scared of cremation. He is in love with white cranes, and he thinks that once you die a white crane carries you up to heaven. He wants to go with them but he doesn't think that they want to take him. Japan is developing, and instead of burying people when they die now they only cremate people. The old man knows that he is probably going to die but he really doesn't want to get cremated, and “disappear with a puff of smoke” as he says, so the film is mainly about his fight against cremation.

This film's cinematography is beautiful, the quality of the picture is amazing, and the scenery of where it is gorgeous! In the film I love the contrast of the colors with the bright green fields to the baby blue skys. One of my favorite parts of the stunning filming is how they make all of the background blurry and the main focus of the short is pin sharp. There is a lot of background music in the movie and it tells the mood, if it is a intense hard scene the music is deeps and if it is a light scene then the music is light and happy.

A scene that stands out in my mind is the scene when the little boy (who is the grandson of the old man) and his friends are playing this game. They bury each other in sand and see who can last the longest without coming up for air -- the person that is buried in sand the longest is the winner. This scene stands out to me the most because it is such an odd and rather dangerous game for 5 year olds to be playing by themselves.

I recommend this film to someone that likes kind of odd films or someone who wants to take a risk. I recommend this film for ages 12 and up not because of inappropriateness but because of maturity. I rate this film 2.5 out of 5.