Season 1 • Episode 9
Latest"Fuyu no Sakura" is described as a pure love story with similarities to the popular Korean drama "Winter Sonata" (titled "Fuyu no Sonata" in Japan). Kusanagi plays a gentle glass craftsman in Yamagata who has no experience in love. Imai plays an older housewife with a husband and daughter who goes on a trip alone to Yamagata, hoping to see sakura trees blooming in winter. She gets into an accident, but is saved by Kusanagi. He ends up tending to her, and the two are soon drawn to each other.
Cinematography
Yamagata's winter sakura shots are genuinely breathtaking.
Acting
Kusanagi's gentle restraint vs. Imai's bottled-up desperation.
Score
That piano theme will live rent-free in your head.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 'winter sakura' phenomenon is real in Yamagata—prunus autumnalis trees bloom November to March, making the impossible romance literally visible.
Imai was 43, Kusanagi 36—unusually narrow gap for 'older woman' narratives, yet the show frames it as scandalous, revealing Japan's brutal ageism toward women.
JP
