「君は死ぬことについてどう思う？」 | “What do you think of death?”

This question had never raised so much appreciation about Life as ironically it was being asked by a Shinigami [ 死神, God of Death, or to fellow Pratchett-ians .. DEATH ]

And yes I finally get to see it last night! <3

 
The Accuracy of Death follows the story of one of the many Shinigami/Grim Reapers at work. The adorably clueless and ultra gorgeous if I may add Chiba is followed by his superior in the form of a black dog into the human’s world. Chiba is to observe human who will be faced with unexpected death cases for seven days so he can pass the final judgment whether he/she is to be labelled “Proceed” - to die or “Passed Over” - to live until death claims them again since “Everyone will die someday anyway”.

Chiba himself always wondered why it rained everytime he’s on assignment and wondered how exactly a clear blue sky looks like. Having the ‘But oh well!’-attitude to human world’s quirks and problems in general, he goes on ahead doing his job while taking the time to indulge in his favourite pastime; humanity’s greatest invention - music.

He’s not slacking off on his job. Really.

The movie is split into three parts which follows the lives of different people in span on 40+ years or so. We see a young depressed OL who was constantly surrounded by death of her loved ones in the 80s ( awkward hairstyle alert! And OMG nostalgiaaaa! The Walkman \:D/ ), a middle age yakuza who wanted to avenge his Aniki in the present day and finally a leap in about 20 years or so into the future for the life story of an old hairdresser in her 70s.

I was half expecting this to be a rather solemn movie from the premise. ( Seriously, how can it NOT be morbid if it’s a story about how a Shinigami is doing his job? ) But as the stories of the people around Chiba unfold itself; making us laughed out loud on how inept he can be when dealing with the more intricate human emotions and desire to live. As a Shinigami, he lives outside the boundaries of these and didn’t think he’ll ever come to understand human properly. And yet, the strengths and weaknesses of the people he met slowly paved way to an important message not just to Chiba, but to everyone who’s living and breathing too.

It is particularly amusing that nearly all the audiences had managed to piece up the links of the three almost episodic life stories; whereas Chiba was the last person to discover the connection due to his naive detachment from being actually alive. This brought him to learn more about the differences between what’s important albeit ordinary aspects in the life of those who live for themselves. What is ordinary to one may be spectacularly important to another — and I seriously feel in love with the message.

“Why is it always raining when I work?”

On the fangirly note, I went all “LE GASSPPP GORGEOUS!!!” every time Takeshi appeared with shorter hair. It’s crazily amazing how boyish he can look after a haircut from his signature Shinigami-look Let’s pretend the yakuza-hair never happened okay?

Also, the theme song for the movie - “Sunny Day” is very apt indeed

PS : Nihon Review has a wonderful review of the movie here who can put the thoughts regarding the movie in definitely more eloquent way than I did.

Tags: accuracy of death, be still my fangirly heart, kaneshiro takeshi