My film mostly of course relates to a Japan of the past. It does so in different ways. There is the time of the Meiji Restoration, which the film "Hana Chirinu" depicts, there is the time the film was made (1939), and then there is the relation to the present. It is also a film about things that have been lost. Most Japanese silent films from before the 1920s have been lost. While not directly mentioned in this film, their absence is felt and there is the fear of losing another important work, in this case "Hana Chirinu".
