Synopsis:

Many years ago, while my father was working on his Bonsai plants in the garden, my mother said to me “He made my life a Bonsai” The result, decades later was this extremely personal work intertwining the technically brutal creation of the beautiful bonsai tree with the life of my mother.

Review by Andie Karvelis

Director and Choreographer Leslie Watanabe has done an artful job with this film. One of the most clever things is to incorporate two narrators. David Janowiak and June Wright provide the voices for the film and both are so important for the story. David takes you on an educational journey about the Bonsai trees while June provides the voice of the “Mother”.

You can definitely see the correlation between the Bonsai and June’s portrayal, entwining them into one story. This was only heightened by the creativity of the dancers and Leslie’s choreography. The way the dancers formed the different shapes of the trees and the film superimposed that tree over their image was lovely.

The film’s score was provided by Lance Riley and it was absolutely beautiful. It captured your imagination and transported you to Japan. The costumes were amazing to see, very traditional Japanese and I personally loved learning about the different types of Bonsai trees.

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