Endimion Takayama: Complete [J-Movie] Sakura no Sono

Version 1

Title: 櫻の園 -さくらのその-

Title (romaji): Sakura no Sono

Title (English): The Cherry Orchard

Broadcast period: November 3, 1990

Synopsis

Shun Nakahara spins this understated tale about a group of schoolgirls dealing with stage fright and their own blossoming sexuality. Set hours before an all-girl high school drama club premieres its annual production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, the film opens with Kaoru Shiromaru (Miho Miyazawa) in the clubroom alone with her boyfriend who kisses her neck. She hustles him out of the room just as her classmate Yubuko Shimizu (Hiroko Nakajima) saunters in. The boyfriend accidently leaves behind a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. While Yubuko flaunts school regulation by sporting a perm, the real rebel of the group is Kiko Sugiyama (Miho Tsumiki), who was seen smoking cigarettes in a coffee shop instead of attending school. While the teachers debate whether or not to cancel the play because of Kiko's disobedience, Chiyoko Kurata (Yasuyo Shirashima), who has a major role in the play, is suddenly overwhelmed by stage fright. While her best friend Yubuko tries to comfort her, Chiyoko seethes with jealousy over the closeness of the two friends.

Cast

Hiroko Nakajima

Miho Tsumiki

Yasuyo Shiratori

Aki Kajiwara

Version 2

Title: 櫻の園 -さくらのその-

Title (romaji): Sakura no Sono

Title (English): The Cherry Orchard

Broadcast period: November 8, 2008

Synopsis

Momo Yuki (Saki Fukuda), who studied the violin from early childhood, decides to terminate her musical education after the conflict with her teacher. Thanks to relations of her father, she tranfers without exams into senior class of the pompous All Girl Ouka High School. Early, her mother and elder sister graduated with honors from this school. At school, she becomes bored, and she is looking for an occupation that would help her and her classmates to brighten up the monotony of everyday life. In the old school building she discovers a former drama club room and finds a scenery of Anton Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard". In old days the performance of this play was a required part of school foundation day ceremony. But now for some reason, "The Cherry Orchard" is prohibited in Ouka... Momo gathers a group of fellow advocates and decides, despite the ban, by all means to revive a performance of this play.

Cast