Nakanshi

I thought this movie was absolutely gorgeous. It was funny, heartwarming, and downright tragic all at the same time. But it balanced it, and that's what made it great. There was a winter in high school where there was at least three deaths in my family, a wife, husband, and brother, and thus three funerals in about a month. Even though they were my grandmother's uncles and aunt and I did not know them very well, it was a really low time for my family, and for me in particular. That's the last time I remember seeing a dead person, and it is a bit of surreal experience. When they are in that casket, all fixed up, they look like they could sit up and start talking to you. You know they are dead, but they aren't. I can't even imagine watching someone preparing someone I loved for that - and yet that's what every family did in the movie. They watched, and sometimes even participated, in a ritual that made the dead seem a little more alive. I'm not saying that that's wrong, but I know for me it would be really hard. Still, I'm glad that they showed those few families laughing while they were saying goodbye to their loved ones. Death is sad, but it doesn't have to always be that way.