"Soon, it will be time to say goodbye."
As always, Meguro Ren did an amazing job on the big screen, this time delivering a poignant and emotionally charged performance as Urushibara Reiji.
Anyways!
Until We Meet Again doesn't have any romance, if that's what you were looking for; this quiet, beautiful movie, presents us a small view of the working life of two different people who deal with grief and death in whole different ways, through a quite unique perspective: a funeral home worker's.
Sure, we see a lot of deaths in movies and dramas, and Japan truly knows how to makes us cry with those, but in this movie, death doesn't seem as tragic and dramatic as we use to see.
Here... it just feels... gentle, natural, and with each individual funeral we discover more about the main characters, while learning a bit about how important is it to respect the deceased ones.
It can feel repetitive, and painfully slow too, but I believe that movies like this one need to be digested little by little, because death may be sudden, but the grief and all the pain that comes after that doesn't go away fast. If you're not patient enough, you may not enjoy watching this wholeheartedly.
Alongside with Meguro-san, Hamabe Minami, our Shimizu Misora stole the spotlight, bringing this role to life in the most beautiful way. Her reactions felt real, and moving. We see her growing up as a character, and the way she tries so hard to get better at her job makes us to root for her. Despite her mistakes, you can understand her worries, her sadness, and her admiration towards Urushibara-san.
It is elemental that this movie doesn't have romance, because it lets us see more about the importance of the message they try to portray about funerals: Each person deserves its own, respectful goodbye.
It's really nice to see Meguro and Hamabe together, because the weight doesn't seem that hard to bear with them helping us to understand what's going on.
In any case, I would've loved to see more about Misora's grandmother, and maybe Urushibara-san's beginning in the funeral home. We just see him as a professional; perhaps a silly or stressful flashback showing the start of his journey could've given him more depth as a character because it takes years to build that professional mask, but, Misora's the protagonist after all, so, we can survive without that just fine...
The scenography, the narrative, the music... everything's absolutely gentle, so, if you're looking something to cry to, you have the right material to do so. It builds up tension just fine, hurting and healing with a great balance.
Meguro-san may seem kind of unexpressive here, or even cold to say the least, but please take into consideration the little gestures and his body language. That, and his attentive gaze complement Misora's emotional personality.
Hope you can watch with a good heart, and let yourself heal with it if you need it!
As a last note: Music's... just there. I'd say the lack of soundtrack in some scenes is what makes them even more memorable. That's why I gave it a 6.5/10. Me personally, wouldn't rewatch, so, 1/10 in that aspect.
That's all what I can say as for now.
I loved this a lot :-)
Anyways!
Until We Meet Again doesn't have any romance, if that's what you were looking for; this quiet, beautiful movie, presents us a small view of the working life of two different people who deal with grief and death in whole different ways, through a quite unique perspective: a funeral home worker's.
Sure, we see a lot of deaths in movies and dramas, and Japan truly knows how to makes us cry with those, but in this movie, death doesn't seem as tragic and dramatic as we use to see.
Here... it just feels... gentle, natural, and with each individual funeral we discover more about the main characters, while learning a bit about how important is it to respect the deceased ones.
It can feel repetitive, and painfully slow too, but I believe that movies like this one need to be digested little by little, because death may be sudden, but the grief and all the pain that comes after that doesn't go away fast. If you're not patient enough, you may not enjoy watching this wholeheartedly.
Alongside with Meguro-san, Hamabe Minami, our Shimizu Misora stole the spotlight, bringing this role to life in the most beautiful way. Her reactions felt real, and moving. We see her growing up as a character, and the way she tries so hard to get better at her job makes us to root for her. Despite her mistakes, you can understand her worries, her sadness, and her admiration towards Urushibara-san.
It is elemental that this movie doesn't have romance, because it lets us see more about the importance of the message they try to portray about funerals: Each person deserves its own, respectful goodbye.
It's really nice to see Meguro and Hamabe together, because the weight doesn't seem that hard to bear with them helping us to understand what's going on.
In any case, I would've loved to see more about Misora's grandmother, and maybe Urushibara-san's beginning in the funeral home. We just see him as a professional; perhaps a silly or stressful flashback showing the start of his journey could've given him more depth as a character because it takes years to build that professional mask, but, Misora's the protagonist after all, so, we can survive without that just fine...
The scenography, the narrative, the music... everything's absolutely gentle, so, if you're looking something to cry to, you have the right material to do so. It builds up tension just fine, hurting and healing with a great balance.
Meguro-san may seem kind of unexpressive here, or even cold to say the least, but please take into consideration the little gestures and his body language. That, and his attentive gaze complement Misora's emotional personality.
Hope you can watch with a good heart, and let yourself heal with it if you need it!
As a last note: Music's... just there. I'd say the lack of soundtrack in some scenes is what makes them even more memorable. That's why I gave it a 6.5/10. Me personally, wouldn't rewatch, so, 1/10 in that aspect.
That's all what I can say as for now.
I loved this a lot :-)
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