I bought the DVD of Yomigaeri entirely because of Takeuchi Yuko ("Be with you", "Heaven's bookstore"), whose smile is guaranteed to brighten up any miserable day. I then discovered that the director is Shiota Akihiko, who made the controversial but most interesting Moonlight Whisper. Yomigaeri is not in the least controversial, but equally interesting.
The title "Resurrection" tells a little, but not everything, about the movie a scary ghost tale? a clever hoax? a science fiction yarn? Interesting that the genre in which IMDb placed this movie is "Fantasy". If I were to choose, I would say "romance".
The movie starts with a bit of a red herring, with the first two resurrection scenes (the pop musician couple and the little boy) looking like the beginning of scary ghost stories. The mood soon shifts to science fiction, with an investigation team showing up and cases becoming commonplace. Before we get to the middle of the movie, however, we realize that the focus is really on the human stories, with human dramas unfolding.
The resurrections are on deaths ranging from a long time ago to very recent. On the one hand, we see the little kid coming back to a mother who is now over 80, a mother coming back to a daughter who is now about her own age (i.e. when she died of childbirth) and a teenager coming back to an adult younger brother. On the other hand, we have a husband who died only three years ago, and even a high school student walking right into his own funeral.
As we follow these various stories, we see that it is not all rejoices, as people, both those coming back from death and their beloved ones and friends, find it awkward, and even painful, to cope with the change. There is also a clever twist, about two third into the movie, which you would recognize as soon as you see it.
The movie is beautifully shot, both in the literal visual sense and in its being tender and touching. The premises are interesting, and quite well tackled even though not in great depth. As there are quite a few stories and many characters, the stars Takeuchi Yuko and Kusanagi Tsuyoshi (of SMAP, Japan's most popular boy-band) do not get the screen time all to themselves. Still, we see a reasonable amount of them, and they are beautiful, individually as well as together.
The title "Resurrection" tells a little, but not everything, about the movie a scary ghost tale? a clever hoax? a science fiction yarn? Interesting that the genre in which IMDb placed this movie is "Fantasy". If I were to choose, I would say "romance".
The movie starts with a bit of a red herring, with the first two resurrection scenes (the pop musician couple and the little boy) looking like the beginning of scary ghost stories. The mood soon shifts to science fiction, with an investigation team showing up and cases becoming commonplace. Before we get to the middle of the movie, however, we realize that the focus is really on the human stories, with human dramas unfolding.
The resurrections are on deaths ranging from a long time ago to very recent. On the one hand, we see the little kid coming back to a mother who is now over 80, a mother coming back to a daughter who is now about her own age (i.e. when she died of childbirth) and a teenager coming back to an adult younger brother. On the other hand, we have a husband who died only three years ago, and even a high school student walking right into his own funeral.
As we follow these various stories, we see that it is not all rejoices, as people, both those coming back from death and their beloved ones and friends, find it awkward, and even painful, to cope with the change. There is also a clever twist, about two third into the movie, which you would recognize as soon as you see it.
The movie is beautifully shot, both in the literal visual sense and in its being tender and touching. The premises are interesting, and quite well tackled even though not in great depth. As there are quite a few stories and many characters, the stars Takeuchi Yuko and Kusanagi Tsuyoshi (of SMAP, Japan's most popular boy-band) do not get the screen time all to themselves. Still, we see a reasonable amount of them, and they are beautiful, individually as well as together.