KAORU’S FUNERAL

Finding Humor and Humanity in the Face of Death

Venue(s): Shinjuku Musashinokan
November 22 (Fri) to December 5, 2024
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Official website: yuasan1203.wixsite.com/pkfppartners
Theater website: shinjuku.musashino-k.jp/information/
Theater website: shinjuku.musashino-k.jp/movies/41014/
Trailer: https://eiga.com/movie/100703/

Advance tickets: https://www1.musashino-ticket.jp/shinjuku/schedule/index.php

Title: カオルの葬式 (Kaoru no Soshiki)
Director: Noriko Yuasa (湯浅典子)

Japanese cinema has a strong track record with memorable films set at funeral gatherings — think Juzo Itami’s The Funeral (1984) and the Oscar®-winning Departures (2008). Director Noriko Yuasa steps boldly into the mix with her sophomore feature, Performing Kaoru’s Funeral, a dark comedy that was made as an international co-production between Japan, Spain and Singapore. Winner of the Japan Cuts Award at the 2024 Osaka Asian Film Festival, it will be showing with English subtitles at Shinjuku Musashinokan during its run.

Performing Kaoru’s Funeral opens when Jun Yokotani (Koji Seki), a failed actor who works as an escort agency driver, receives a call informing him that his ex-wife, Kaoru (Kano Ichiki), has died in a traffic accident and her will names him the chief mourner at her funeral. Although they divorced 10 years ago, such things are taken very seriously in Japan, so Jun reluctantly travels to Kaoru’s hometown of Okayama to fulfill this duty. There, he comes across a volatile group of family members, friends and colleagues, including Kaoru’s outspoken nine-year-old daughter. This quirky cast of characters is made more so by the fact that Kaoru was a screenwriter, and the funeral begins to resemble the final act of a film.

But while Performing Kaoru’s Funeral delves into its subject’s tangled web of relationships, mining them for both humor and pathos, it also focuses on the resurrection of Jun’s memories of his ex and the enduring mystery of how we can ever really know another human being, even a loved one.

Blending ancient Buddhist funeral customs with modern-day dysfunctionalism, Yuasa’s film is a potent blend of off-kilter performances, striking cinematography (by Victor Català), a percussive soundtrack (by Joan Vilà) and propulsive editing (by Marc Mitjà Viader).

Shinjuku Musashinokan