FILM LIST

Undead comedy chaos

Metalhead singer Nanase (Suzu Hirose, Chihayafuru, 2016 ) can’t catch a break–her emotionally clueless widowed dad, Kei, is expecting her to quit the band and get serious by joining his big-time pharmaceutical company, while she wishes out loud that he’d just… drop dead.

When his company develops a wildly desired anti-ageing drug and a temporary death drug, a merger plot emerges with a snitch in the ranks, and under the guise of ratting out the leak, Kei secretly plays dead and his daughter’s morbid dream is realised, kind of. Chaos ensues with Lily Franky (Shoplifters, 2018 ) along for the ride as a shinigami (death spirit) and barely-visible assistant Matsuoka, played by Ryō Yoshizawa (Kingdom, 2019 ), as Nanase’s aide.

Purgatory has never looked better in this offbeat comedy feature debut from director Shinji Hamasaki.