Verão com Estranhos

This is probably the most subdued Nobuhiko Obayashi film I've seen so far (granted, we're only talking about six or seven movies), and it only has occasional stylistic flourishes that are reminiscent of his wilder/crazier films. I kind of liked him dialing it back for this story; the approach worked very well, though one nitpick might be some of the scene transitions where the image paused and awkwardly shrunk looked a little cheesy.

It was great to watch this fairly soon after seeing and loving All of Us Strangers, with both adapting the same source material in different ways. The premise and main four characters carry over in both, but there are enough interesting differences to make The Discarnates worth watching for anyone who liked All of Us Strangers, and vice versa.

The more recent adaptation of Taichi Yamada's novel Strangers probably affected me more emotionally, but I still found The Discarnates moving in parts and overall engaging, both for the familiar and unfamiliar beats contained within. It's very good, and I hope it gets a little more well-known in the wake of this newer adaptation (I didn't even realize the story of All of Us Strangers had already been made into a film, and maybe others are in the same boat).