Kiseki no ringo (2013)

Kiseki no ringo: Directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura. With Sadao Abe, Miho Kanno, Mieko Harada, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi. In their hometown of Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, Akinori Kimura (Sadao Abe) and his wife Mieko (Miho Kanno) open an apple orchard. Because of Meiko’s allergic reaction to pesticides, without the help of chemicals, Akinori Kimura must grow his apples. His family endures hardships due to this challenge and suffers severe financial difficulties. Akinori Kimura is even considering suicide.

“Certainly the moral of this movie, based, we are told, on a real-life story, is an important one: a man strives against all odds to find a way to grow apples without the use of chemicals or fertilizer. Impossible, he is told. And it seems so, for a long while….u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe lessons imparted are certainly vital in this age of industrial agriculture, in the face of the need to eliminate fossil fuels from all aspects of our lives, including how we feed ourselves. And the scenery is another big draw, especially one snow-capped peak in the distance.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eUnfortunately the acting is uneven, often veering toward the ludicrous, and several plot twists do not withstand scrutiny. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe book on which the movie is based can be purchased, in Japanese, from Amazon Japan; the author, the real-life Akinori, has a website, akinorikimura.net; and at the latter there is a link to an English language online version of the book, introduced by none other than Yoko Ono.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf you share the belief that we need to return to a more natural, environment-friendly (and for that matter, human-friendly) mode of living, including food production, this movie will be well worth watching, if you can find it in English. If you canu0026#39;t, the book may be a worthy (and certainly less melodramatic) alternative.”