Insiders And Outsiders Dept.

"Japan’s Outcasts Still Wait for Acceptance": The buraku, the lower-caste citizens of Japan who still find themselves bound to the past by their ancestry, look towards Obama's inauguration as an example of what they might be able to achieve one day without regret.

Dorris Dörrie's new movie Cherry Blossoms "is both a tender tale of cultural crossings and a double portrait of grief." I'm always leery of most any movie about Japan made by someone who sees it through cherry-blossom-colored glasses (har har), but this sounds intriguing.