Character Analysis
Buongiorno, Nurse!
Change one letter in "nurse" and you get "curse"… which is what young Hana thinks she has. Everyone around her dies—her sweetheart is "shot to bits," and her friend Jan blows up in front her.
"I must be a curse. Anybody who loves me, anybody who gets close to me… Or I must be cursed. Which is it?"
We imagine many people felt like Hana in World War II, when millions died and the idea of love lasting forever was impossibly optimistic.
Unlike her patient (who's burned to a crisp) Hana is young. She has the opportunity to heal, grow, and rebuild. We see her start this process as she moves into the monastery armed with only morphine and a pistol. The first thing she does is to cut her own hair: a fresh start at the end of a hard war. And she gives herself an incredible new 'do without a mirror—if the world doesn't need nurses after the war, she has a good career as a hair stylist ahead of her.
Hana wants alone time, but she doesn't get it. Before she knows it, her monastery is overrun, but it allows her to find love. When she becomes interested in Kip the minesweeper, she starts to find her reflection—once in a pool of water, once in the glass of a wind chime. She wants to look good for him. Finding love with Kip helps her to find herself.
It also allows Hana to see she isn't cursed. Not that their relationship works out… but at least Kip doesn't die. The movie does its best to trick you into thinking he will, during a tense bomb-defusing scene, but Kip survives. However, unable to cope with the death of his own friend, Kip leaves Hana. But this allows her to have a peaceful ending to a relationship once, and gives her the hope that she may one day see him again.
Hana, or Hannah, means "grace" in Hebrew. And Hana handles every situation with grace, giving everyone around her inspiration to do the same during a very difficult time.
Hana's Timeline