I used to think that religion in Japan was for most a matter of custom, not belief. You clap your hands at the shrine because that's what people do, not because you think the resident gods are actually listening.
But as Minoru Kurimura's drama "Sakura, Futatabi no Kanako (Orpheus' Lyre)" shows, it's not so simple, especially when death arrives suddenly to a young couple living an ordinary middle-class life in today's Tokyo. Rituals that may have once been pro forma suddenly acquire a new significance while ancient beliefs that are now less taught than transmitted like cultural DNA take on a new, personal meaning.
Based on a novel by Kiyomi Niitsu, the film begins with that most iconic of Japanese rituals: a school entrance ceremony, with cherry blossoms in full bloom serving as glorious symbols of renewal. Yoko (Ryoko Hirosue) and Nobuki (Goro Inagaki) have arrived with their daughter Kanako at her new kindergarten for the ceremony — when a moment of inattention leads to tragedy.