Hanamizuki

The Train Accident

The film spans the years from 1996 to 2006, opening in 2005 with Sae traveling by bus to her birthplace of Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada. As she looks at an old photograph, the narrative shifts back to where their story began.

1996. Sae and Kouhei meet for the first time on a train carrying students to their respective college entrance examinations. During the journey, the train strikes a deer on the tracks, causing significant delays. Sae becomes extremely anxious about being late for her crucial examination.

Desperate to reach the exam center on time, they disembark and walk to a nearby house seeking help. Sae spots a key sitting in the ignition of a truck parked on the property. She asks Kouhei if he would be willing to "borrow" the truck without permission to drive her to the examination center.

Kouhei agrees and they take the truck. However, during the drive, while attempting to overtake a slow-moving cattle truck, Kouhei narrowly avoids a collision with an oncoming crane. He swerves off the road and crashes into a ditch.

The police are called to the scene. Both Sae and Kouhei are brought to the police station. As a consequence of this incident, Sae is disqualified from taking her entrance examinations that day, destroying her immediate chance of entering university.

Long Distance

Despite this disastrous beginning, Sae and Kouhei develop a romantic relationship. Sae works diligently to prepare for the entrance examinations the following year, while Kouhei consistently supports and encourages her efforts.

However, Kouhei harbors conflicted feelings about Sae's ambitions. He wants her to succeed, but he knows that if she gains admission to a university in Tokyo, they will be separated by the great distance between Tokyo and their hometown in Hokkaido.

When Sae successfully gains admission to prestigious Waseda University in Tokyo, Kouhei's mixed emotions manifest as withdrawal. At first, he refuses to see her off when she departs for Tokyo, unable to face the reality of their separation.

However, Kouhei's friends urge him to reconsider. They convince him to make a grand gesture. Kouhei and his friends get onto a fishing boat and chase after the ferry carrying Sae away. When they catch sight of her on the departing vessel, they unfurl a large banner reading "Good Luck Sae!"—a touching farewell that demonstrates Kouhei's love despite his fears about their future.

Tokyo Life

At Waseda University, Sae meets Kitami Junichi, a senior student who specializes in photography documenting children living in third-world countries. Junichi proves helpful and kind, assisting Sae in finding a part-time night job teaching English at a cram school. They develop a close friendship.

When Kouhei visits Sae in Tokyo, he observes her talking with Junichi. Seeing them together, Kouhei becomes intensely jealous, imagining that Sae might be developing romantic feelings for this sophisticated Tokyo university student.

During a dinner date with Sae, Kouhei's jealousy manifests as sullen silence. He refuses to eat anything and eventually storms out of the restaurant in anger.

While walking alone through Tokyo's streets, Kouhei encounters a group of delinquent youths who knock down a box containing the present he brought for Sae. When they mock him, Kouhei's anger boils over into a physical fight. He is injured during the confrontation.

Sae finds the wounded Kouhei and brings him back to her apartment to tend to his injuries. They reconcile, addressing the jealousy and insecurity underlying their argument.

Kouhei then gives Sae her present: a model ship similar to the fishing boat he stood on when he saw her off from their hometown. The gift represents their connection despite the physical distance between them.

However, Sae expresses a deep worry: she fears their relationship may not last very long given the strain of distance and their different life paths.

Diverging Paths

Four years later, Sae is graduating from Waseda University but faces the harsh reality of Japan's competitive job market—she is unable to secure employment in Tokyo.

During this uncertain time, Junichi approaches her with a proposal: he asks her to move to New York City with him, where he has professional opportunities in his photography work.

Meanwhile, Kouhei faces his own crisis. His father informs him that their family fishing boat—their primary source of income—is about to be repossessed by the bank due to debt. Kouhei must find alternative employment to support his family.

Determined to be with Sae, Kouhei contacts her and tells her he plans to move to Tokyo to find work and be near her.

However, tragedy strikes. During the fishing boat's final voyage before repossession, Kouhei's father suffers a fatal heart attack and dies at sea.

With his father's sudden death, Kouhei's plans to move to Tokyo become impossible. He must remain in Hokkaido to care for his grieving mother and his younger sister, taking on the role of family provider and protector.

Unable to follow Sae to Tokyo and facing pressure to move forward with her life, Sae makes a difficult decision: she accepts Junichi's proposal and moves to New York City.

New York and Marriage

In New York, Sae and Junichi work together at the same company, building careers while living in America. Their relationship deepens over time.

Eventually, Junichi proposes marriage to Sae. She accepts his proposal, committing to a future with him.

The Wedding

Sae returns to Kushiro, Hokkaido to attend her friend Minami's wedding. While there, she makes a shocking discovery: Kouhei has married a woman named Ritsuko.

During the wedding celebration, Ritsuko observes the way Sae and Kouhei interact with each other. She notices the unmistakable chemistry and unresolved feelings between them, making her deeply jealous and insecure about her own marriage.

Later, Kouhei arranges to meet Sae privately at a lighthouse overlooking the ocean. During this meeting, Sae tells him that this visit to Japan might be her last, since she is planning to marry Junichi and will likely remain in New York permanently.

Seeing each other after such a long separation, with the knowledge that this may be their final chance, the emotional tension between them becomes overwhelming. They can no longer resist their feelings.

When Kouhei drops Sae off at her family home, they embrace each other passionately in front of the house, giving in to the love they never stopped feeling for each other despite the years and distance.

However, their sense of responsibility and commitment to their respective partners—Sae to her fiancé Junichi, Kouhei to his wife Ritsuko—forces them to reluctantly pull apart and say goodbye.

Consequences

When Kouhei returns home, he finds Ritsuko waiting for him on the steps. She delivers bad news: the bank is threatening to make them bankrupt, creating a severe financial crisis for their family.

Kouhei works hard and manages to resolve the financial problem, securing their home and livelihood. However, when he returns home after settling the bank issue, he discovers divorce papers left on the table by Ritsuko. She has decided to end their marriage, unable to remain with a man who clearly loves someone else.

The scene transitions to a news report on television: Junichi has been killed in Iraq while on assignment photographing conflict zones. Sae's fiancé is dead.

Peggy's Cove

Two years later, in 2005, Sae visits her childhood hometown of Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia, Canada. While walking through the small coastal town, she happens to look into a shop window and is stunned to see the model ship that Kouhei gave her years ago when they were students.

Inquiring about the ship, Sae discovers that Kouhei is now part of a merchant ship's crew, and his vessel has recently docked in the port.

Filled with hope and urgency, Sae rushes to the harbor to find Kouhei. However, she arrives just moments too late—his ship has already departed. She misses him by minutes.

Reunion

2006. Sae has moved back to Japan permanently. She has established a school for children, operating it out of her family home in her hometown.

The film's final scene shows Sae looking out and seeing a familiar figure standing under the flowering dogwood tree (hanamizuki in Japanese)—the same tree that has appeared as a symbol throughout their story.

It is Kouhei. He has returned.

Sae welcomes Kouhei home, their long separation finally ending.

Epilogue

After the credits, a brief scene appears: a little girl stands looking at the same dogwood tree that Sae always visited. Her father approaches from behind and lifts her up affectionately.

Looking closely, the viewer can recognize that the child's father is Kouhei. The implication is clear: Sae and Kouhei have married and had a daughter together. They are living in Sae's childhood home, finally united after years of separation, missed opportunities, and relationships with other people.

Their love, which survived distance, time, other marriages, and tragic loss, has finally brought them together permanently under the flowering dogwood tree.

The ending's reunion under the dogwood tree validates that their love survived years of separation, other marriages, and tragic losses, positioning their bond as fate rather than choice that temporarily got derailed. The flowering dogwood symbolizes endurance and return, with the tree witnessing their entire relationship from beginning to final reunion.

The epilogue revealing their daughter demonstrates that time apart strengthened rather than diminished their connection, with both needing to experience other relationships and losses before recognizing what they always had. Their marriage represents maturity and certainty absent from their youthful romance.

Ritsuko's divorce and Junichi's death removing the obstacles to reunion positions their earlier relationships as narrative impediments rather than genuine alternatives, suggesting Sae and Kouhei were always meant to be together. The film treats their other partners as temporary diversions from inevitable destiny.

The near-miss in Peggy's Cove where Sae just misses Kouhei's ship creates unbearable tension resolved by the final reunion, demonstrating that even when fate brings them close, timing remains crucial. Their eventual reunion gains emotional weight from the accumulated near-misses throughout the story.

Sae establishing a children's school in her family home represents putting down permanent roots after years of displacement in Tokyo and New York, with Kouhei's return completing her homecoming. Their reunion merges personal and geographical belonging.

Is Hanamizuki based on a true story?

No, Hanamizuki is a fictional film inspired by and named after a popular Japanese song of the same name by Yo Hitoto. The 2004 song's lyrics about enduring love and separation provided thematic foundation for the screenplay, with the film functioning as an extended narrative interpretation of the song's emotional content rather than depicting real events.

What does "hanamizuki" mean?

Hanamizuki (花水木) is the Japanese name for the flowering dogwood tree (Cornus florida). In Japanese culture, dogwood blossoms symbolize durability and lasting affection. The tree's appearance throughout the film—particularly in the opening and closing scenes—represents the enduring nature of Sae and Kouhei's love despite years of separation.

Why didn't Sae and Kouhei just stay together from the beginning?

The film portrays how life circumstances—Kouhei's father's death and family responsibilities, Sae's career opportunities abroad, economic pressures, and timing—create insurmountable obstacles to young love. Their separation reflects realistic challenges facing couples when personal ambitions, family obligations, and practical necessities conflict with romantic desires.

What happened to Ritsuko after the divorce?

The film doesn't show Ritsuko's fate after she leaves the divorce papers, focusing instead on Sae and Kouhei's eventual reunion. Her character serves to demonstrate that Kouhei couldn't fully commit to another relationship while still loving Sae, with the divorce representing acknowledgment of this emotional truth rather than vilifying Ritsuko.