Many years ago, I watched a movie called
Departures (おくりびと) that really moved me. It was a movie about encoffinment, so when I saw a new movie on a related topic, I was interested to see how it differs.
It Will Soon Be Time to Say Goodbye (ほどなく、お別れです) is a movie about a funeral house. The male lead is not just a funeral director, but is trained in encoffinment. The encoffinment part, though, was only briefly touched on in this movie, unlike the 2008 movie. There was also a fantastic element in this movie, with the female lead being able to see dead people.
Frankly, when I saw the fantastic element early in the movie, I thought it would not be to my taste. And there was nothing really exceptional about the movie, with it being composed of a few short stories about each dead person, brought out by the funeral house's staff as they prepared and organized the funerals. But somehow, the movie brought tears to my eyes. I don't know why, but I ending up crying. I think it was the acting of the two leads, plus the melancholic soundtrack. I also think I won't have cried if I didn't watch it in a theatre. Watching it in a theatre allowed me to focus on the movie fully, and fully absorb the acting and music. It reminded me that, in this age when many movies are made for streaming, there are still movies that are best enjoyed in a movie theatre.
