Suwîto rein: Shinigami no seido (2008)

Suwîto rein: Shinigami no seido: Directed by Masaya Kakehi. With Takeshi Kaneshiro, Manami Konishi, Sumiko Fuji, Yuki Enomoto. Kaneshiro plays a Grim Reaper who appears to his victims in human form and spends a week with them before deciding whether to off them or not.

“The story is about a Grim Reaper, whose job is deciding whether or not the u0026#39;subjectu0026#39; is ready for unexpected deaths. The movie is divided into three episodes, first about an OL in her 20s, second about a yakuza in his 40s, and the last about an old lady in her 70s. All the different episodes seem to be unrelated, but connects spontaneously in the end.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlthough the whole u0026#39;Shinigamiu0026#39; thing, which literally means u0026#39;death godu0026#39; or u0026#39;Grim Reaperu0026#39; is very common in Japanese culture, the concept somewhat reminded me of u0026quot;Meet Joe Blacku0026quot;, and the random encounter with other Shinigami reminded me of u0026quot;City of Angelsu0026quot;. However, I was relieved the story focused on the protagonistu0026#39;s gradual understanding of life rather than falling in love with his u0026#39;subjectsu0026#39;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt has been a long time since I saw Kaneshiro Takeshi in a Japanese movie. He has been appearing in many epic Chinese/HK movies of late, and it was fun watching such u0026#39;S-classu0026#39; actor in a Japanese film again. He played the innocent and composed personality of his character very well. I really liked the silent dog too. The subtitled conversation really adds to the fantasy in addition to the u0026#39;bridge and dooru0026#39;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis film was exceptionally well directed. There were so many memorable scenes and advanced camera-work/angles. Even the special effects, other than the u0026#39;touch of deathu0026#39;, were amazing considering Japanese budgets.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePersonally, this movie didnu0026#39;t really make me ponder about life, so it may have failed in that aspect, but it was a story well told.”