Louis Vuitton Hawaii International FIlm Festival 2008

When the orchestra that Daigo Kobayashi plays the cello for disbands, he and his wife decide to move back to his hometown. Hoping to start a new career as a travel agent, he responds to an ad announcing "departures," only to find that the business in question is actually a mortuary, and in need of someone to assist in caring for the "departed." In need of work, Daigo accepts the job, and thus begins his career in preparing the dead for the afterlife. Although his wife and friends find his line of work deplorable, he discovers a balance in life - somewhere between the world of the living and the dead. --Minette T. Ferrer