Beautiful and Funny

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2014)

A newly unemployed cellist (Masahiro Motoki) takes a job preparing the dead for funerals.
While subject matter is grim, the film never presents it as such. Instead, there is plenty of humor (without being disrespectful), and a beautiful display of the ceremony and ritual that goes into death in Japan. While all cultures have their own customs, Japan's may be one of the most beautiful... and strikingly different than the United States, given that almost all the dead in Japan are cremated, whereas very few in the United States are.
Making the main character a cellist is a nice touch in that it adds such great music to the moments throughout the film without making such music seem forced or out of place. Do musicians see the world differently? Maybe so.