Daigo Kobayashi (Motoki) is a newly unemployed cellist. He decides to gives up on being a professional cellist and returns with his wife to his hometown to start over and, in particular, find a new job.

He answers an advertisement for ‘Assisting Departures’ thinking that it is for work in a travel agency, only to discover that the job is actually for an ‘encoffineer’, a funeral professional who ceremonially prepares the deceased for burial and entry into the next life in front of the mourners.

This job has many challenges. No one – no one normal, that is – really enjoys contact with corpses; even when they are, shall we say, in good order. The job is often dirty and smelly – corpses, after all, often aren’t in good order. On top of all, the procedure is done in front of the deceased’s mourners, so one has to maintain absolute dignity and decorum. There is also considerable stigma associated with the occupation, so he keeps his new occupation secret from family and friends. Despite all the difficulties, Daigo nevertheless takes pride in his work and grows as a person as he perfects the art of ‘Nokanshi’; but the challenges keep on coming.

This is a profound, sensitive and sometimes comical movie, as much about how to rebuild one’s life and to live with love and dignity as it is about death. There is something here for all of us, which can best be appreciated by seeing this movie.