Wonderful movie. I was moved.

Rating: 10/10 (8 March 2009)

Wonderful movie. I was moved. The subject of the movie is a profession called 'Nokanshi', which is to cleanse, dress and make up a corpse before it is placed in a coffin. Centered in this profession, the story is strong and understandable. All side stories are effectively woven. This movie taught me that death is not a simple end of life, but it could even trigger reconciliation of those who hate someone.
Everyone dislikes a job to touch corpses. Therefore the classified advertisement is vague and the job interview is precarious, and the protagonist is fooled to join this business. In the classified ad, it said 'Tabi no otetsudai (Assisting travels)', but the boss said it is a typo and he corrected it to 'Tabidachi no otetsudai (Assisting departures)'. Then the protagonist faces miserable debut scene with rotten corpse left 2 weeks after death. But there are many humorous scenes in the first half, audiences get drawn into the story. Then he experiences some impressive episodes of nokanshi's work, and his father who abandoned him is mentioned.
Normally I don't cry at movies. But in this movie tears filled my eyes at several scenes, though it is never a so-called tearjerker film.
As for acting performances, Motoki Masahiro's acting is marvelous as well as his performance as a nokanshi. Yamazaki Tsutomu is the best casting too. However, for the wife of the protagonist, I think Hirosue Ryoko is too pretty and girlish and her acting is shallow.