The Parades

Minako dies in a tsunami and does not understand it for some time. She searches for her son in the wreckage and notices that nobody sees or hears her. She is caught in a region between the living and the dead. She meets others in the same state: a writer, a woman who runs a bar, a few more. Each of them has something left unfinished. Once a month a parade forms; the dead who have found no peace walk the streets looking for the people they loved. Michihito Fujii writes and directs. Masami Nagasawa plays Minako. It was released on Netflix. The starting point is the earthquake and tsunami of 2011; the narrative does not describe the disaster directly, but the loss behind it comes from there. The subject is not death but what was not completed. Every character carries a regret, and the parade stands as a chance to do something about it. Fujii was known for realist social drama before this and moves here into a fantastic frame. Its weakness is the frequency of emotional emphasis; in places the narrative tells the viewer too plainly what to feel. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese melodrama and narratives built on the afterlife. Who it is not for: it is long and repetitive, and in the last section the narrative loses force while raising the emotional pressure.