User reviews

Kenta (TAMAYAMA Tetsuji), a just fired pianist, finds himself at a bookstore in Heaven after he was dead drunk out of desperation in a tavern last night.

He's not dead. The bookstore has hired him for a short-term job, and he can go back to the earth after the working period. Most of the other habitants in Heaven have already ended their life on the earth and are preparing for their next life back on the earth. Since every human being has a life of just one hundred years, they live in Heaven for the rest of their life after they die on the earth. If you are dead at seventy, you live for thirty years in Heaven and start a new life on the earth as completely another person -- you have no memory about the previous life. If you live on the earth for a hundred years or more, you immediately reincarnate without going to Heaven.

Soon, Kenta knows Heaven is not like he imagined before and not much different from the earth. It has towns, streets, stores, parks, vehicles, and anything which exists on the earth. He meets a beautiful woman named Sho^ko (TAKEUCHI Yu^ko). She has a grand piano in her cottage and that reminds him that he met her on the earth when he was a boy. She was a gifted pianist and inspired him to make himself a pianist. She tells him she has not played the piano since she lost her one ear's hearing by an accident and has occasional pains in the ear.

At the same time on the earth, Sho^ko's niece, Kanako (Takeuchi, in a double role) is making efforts to restore the town's annual summer fireworks display after more than ten years' interruption. She and her pals especially want to revive its highlight program, "The Loving Fireworks". It is said couples will unite forever if they watch the firework. But Kanako and her pals face a big problem. There is the only man who can make the firework and he quit the job more than ten years ago. She finds and meets the fireworks maker but he tells her he has no intention to make "The Loving Fireworks" or any other fireworks. She gets to know the reason. When he invited his girlfriend to his workshop, he caused an accidental explosion and it robbed her of the one ear's hearing and her music life as a pianist.

This film has two stories in Heaven and on the earth which go on at the same time. When and how will the two meet? And What will happen when they meet?

(7 out of 10)

• USHIRO Satoshi

Unless you're addicted to prettily-shot romantic fluff with cute but skin-deep ideas (like bookshops in Heaven), the only reason to see this slow-moving, emotionally unfocused movie is the performances of Takeuchi Yuko and Kagawa Teruyuki. Takeuchi manages to give some appeal and depth to the two underwritten characters she plays. And Kagawa gives such a raw and discomfiting performance as a former fire-works maker in need of redemption that he seems out of place in a movie which otherwise prettifies pain.

As a whole, the movie fails to strike a balance between the cuteness of its set-up, and the seriousness of its themes of love and guilt, which it lingers over mournfully. It's neither light enough nor serious enough. And as we're expected to invest emotionally in so many characters, all of whom are underdeveloped, we end up investing in none of them.

The last scene is a beauty though.

The Heaven is this film is a place where those who died before the age of 100 go to "live out" the rest of their time; if they lived over 100 on Earth, then they're automatically reincarnated, otherwise, they wait it out.

In Heaven there truly are no dogs, there are also no handicapped, despite the fact that those who die go to Heaven with the appearance they held at the time of their death.

But this is just me nit-picking.

The story here is all about human development and healing - a fine story then, if we only get 100 years to find true inner-peace and happiness before our slates are wiped clean and we're born again.

Forget religious propaganda - lots of different beliefs are borrowed from to create the "Heaven" in this film. Try to forget also the half-witted acting of Natsuko's step-brother, whom I'm still at odds about as to whether he was supposed to be retarded or was truly just that bad.

Forget everything and just watch with an open mind and slowly - it may take an uneasy first 50 minutes, but - slowly, your heart will open as well.

I could drone on about metaphors of love and fireworks, of heart-break and piano symphonies, as I could also reveal more of the plot... but I won't.

I walked into this one knowing precious little and it was the best way: let the tale move you as it unfolds.

If our souls are cleansed of all memories before we are reborn then love cannot ever be eternal; it can, however, be the most important aspect of our lives.

A moving, enjoyable and up-lifting film which is marred by a slightly dull first 45 minutes and a bit of bad acting and dialogue. All of which is meaningless come that final shot as you realise that even though you may have used a whole packet of tissues, life is to be lived.