Three Sisters of Tenmasou

A lighter film from Kitamura. It's another manga adaptation (though I think it's unrelated to Kitamura's Sky High), with the fantasy elements taking a back seat to the drama. In that sense, the film reminded me more of Kore-Eda's After Life, just expect a slightly glossier version of the same setup.

The Tenmasou Inn exists in a space between the worlds of the living and the death. Those in limbo come to the inn, spending time there until they're ready to move on (in either direction). When Tamae arrives, she learns her two half-sisters are working at the inn, but the reunion is bittersweet.

The mix of drama and fantasy works well, Kitamura is skilled enough to handle a film like this and the cast is pretty damn strong. The second half gets a bit too sentimental though and the runtime is excessive, even for a Japanese film. There's quite a lot to like here, but the potential was there to be even better.