ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how, between 1999 and 2019, German director Doris Dörrie made four feature films set in Japan, which were largely inspired by the study of Zen Buddhism and affinity for Japanese culture that had marked her life. The films Enlightenment Guaranteed (1999), Cherry Blossoms (2008), Greetings from Fukushima (2016), and Cherry Blossoms and Demons (2019) do not constitute an in-depth exploration of Japanese culture per se, but rather focus on Germans who embark on a journey to self-discovery by visiting the island nation. Japan is thus personalized, and what is gleaned from the cross-cultural experience is a sense of peace through the acceptance of one’s life. Dörrie’s protagonists come to grips with grief, with the overwhelming power of memory, and with their own gender and sexuality. Dörrie’s Japan is, in part, one defined by stereotypes—her characters dream of Mount Fuji and cherry blossoms. Yet, more importantly, it is also a land of the avant-garde and a bridge between this world and the realm of the supernatural. Dörrie’s personalized Japan, however, transcends the individual and provides a meditation on historical memory.
