I went to see the movie 人生、 いろどり, or jinsei irodori (literally Life, Color) yesterday with my wife. If you want to see more information about the movie, you can find it at this link.

The movie for those that don’t know this a true story about women from Tokushima (the area in Japan where I live) who started a business selling leaves. The story takes place in the country-side of Tokushima where many families make their living from farming. It is a beautiful area in Japan, but the population in the area keeps dropping and families can find it difficult to make their living.

The movie shows how individuals came up with the idea of selling various leaves from the local country side that could be used in restaurants all over Japan to decorate food dishes, as seen in this site. What’s amazing about this story is that the people who run this highly successful business are all older women. Too often society judges elderly people as being unable to contribute to society, more often sadly for women. These women are great role models and I also love how they embraced modern technology to help their business.

The movie’s story was simple, beautiful and one can’t help but stop and think about the simplicity, yet beauty of something as simple as leaves.