This review may contain spoilers
Who will you leave behind?
When you die, do you know who will be there to mourn for you? What will happen to your body? Will anyone care? These are the important questions this movie attempts to answer.
The strength of this movie is the beautiful way it shows the preservation of life even when the soul is long gone. The careful motions of the nokanshi or coffinman have a almost sensual depth. There were moments where just these simple hand gestures brought me to tears. There's a real humanity to people who give their lives to make the final moments of others feel heard. The message of you existed and you mattered is effortlessly presented with all the scenes of these rituals.
I loved how the families presented all showed different stages of grief. The very real situations that can happen during funerals really allowed the film to explore these sentiments. Families have complicated histories and many of these inadvertently come out during times of great pain. The families dealing with sudden deaths and unfamiliarity all brought Daigo greater understanding and support to recontextualize his own emotions.
The harmonious cello piece that plays through the movie is some of Joe Hisaishi's best work. The music ebbs and flows with the scenes and bring emotional warmth to many scenes.
The acting is solid for the most part. Daigo does so much acting through just his eyes and hands on this movie. Mika his wife was well acted, although I found the drama to suddenly swerve with their relationship. I think this is just from more a cultural standpoint as the job of Coffinman is highly stigmatized in Japan. The supporting actors all got their little moments. I wish there was a little more development for the Coworkers in the film.
Most of the editing and directing were really precise and time seemed to move so slowly but then I realized that 60 mins had passed already. I think that's one of the greatest pleasures of the film. You get enraptured into this delicate work and before you know it, time has disappeared. I guess you could say that is also what plays on the central theme of the movie. Time may feel like it's standing still, but it forever moves onward.
The strength of this movie is the beautiful way it shows the preservation of life even when the soul is long gone. The careful motions of the nokanshi or coffinman have a almost sensual depth. There were moments where just these simple hand gestures brought me to tears. There's a real humanity to people who give their lives to make the final moments of others feel heard. The message of you existed and you mattered is effortlessly presented with all the scenes of these rituals.
I loved how the families presented all showed different stages of grief. The very real situations that can happen during funerals really allowed the film to explore these sentiments. Families have complicated histories and many of these inadvertently come out during times of great pain. The families dealing with sudden deaths and unfamiliarity all brought Daigo greater understanding and support to recontextualize his own emotions.
The harmonious cello piece that plays through the movie is some of Joe Hisaishi's best work. The music ebbs and flows with the scenes and bring emotional warmth to many scenes.
The acting is solid for the most part. Daigo does so much acting through just his eyes and hands on this movie. Mika his wife was well acted, although I found the drama to suddenly swerve with their relationship. I think this is just from more a cultural standpoint as the job of Coffinman is highly stigmatized in Japan. The supporting actors all got their little moments. I wish there was a little more development for the Coworkers in the film.
Most of the editing and directing were really precise and time seemed to move so slowly but then I realized that 60 mins had passed already. I think that's one of the greatest pleasures of the film. You get enraptured into this delicate work and before you know it, time has disappeared. I guess you could say that is also what plays on the central theme of the movie. Time may feel like it's standing still, but it forever moves onward.
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