Journey to the Shore

Although art house audiences are familiar with Kiyoshi Kurosawa for his award-winning 2008 drama Tokyo Sonata, the director is also renowned among genre fans for his J-horror output. Here, he just about succeeds in combining the supernatural and the melodramatic with his adaptation of Kazumi Yumoto's bestseller. Three years after drowning, dentist Yusuke (Tadanobu Asano) returns to piano teacher wife Mizuki (Eri Fukatsu) and persuades her to help other spirits find peace. Despite drawing on the Buddhist O-higan ritual, the ghostly vignettes tell very human stories that reveal the reasons why the various souls have remained earthbound. However, unlike director Hirokazu Koreeda's approach in After Life (1998), Kurosawa seems reluctant to explore the themes of grief, regret, loyalty and atonement in any depth. He also submerges the leisurely action in Yoshihide Otomo and Naoko Eto's mawkish score. Nevertheless, cinematographer Akiko Ashizawa's use of light and texture should be applauded as much as Fukatsu's touching performance.