Goodbye, Grandpa!

 This “21st Century update of Juzo Itami’s The Funeral” opens as Yoshiko receives a phone call about her grandfather’s death when she is having sex with her boyfriend.

With this the preparations and funeral for her grandfather begin, involving a slovenly uncle, termagant aunt, shut-in cousin, and a grandma suffering from dementia. No one cries at the funeral and, as eccentric family members true feelings percolate to the surface, Yoshiko starts to think about “life” and “death” and becomes determined to visit the Ganges River in India where people believe they can free their souls for eternity.

An understated black comedy of family dysfunction steeped in specific Japanese funerary and mourning rituals.