Accuracy of Death 死神の精度

Synopsis - Adapted from the bestselling novel by Kotaro Isaka “The Accuracy of Death”. Chiba (Takeshi Kaneshiro) appears seven days before a person dies an unexpected death. His job is to observe the person for seven days, and then decide either to ‘execute’ or ‘pass over’. Getting his work quickly out of the way, he goes to the listening booth of a CD shop and indulges in his favorite pastime, listening to ‘humanity’s greatest invention’: music. He is...a Grim Reaper. Today, again, in the rain, he waits. His subject, her death due in seven days, is Kazue Fujiki (Manami Konishi), 27. She works for a manufacturing company, in the complaints department. Exhausted after her day, she emerges from her office. It’s time for the Reaper to go to work.

Review - The movie already attracted me when I first saw the trailer on MTV Taiwan last month and the whole concept just jolted me. Grim Reaper/ Death God/ Shinigami whatever you call him decked in black suit and tie with white gloves (black gloves would be more suitable but I guess white was used to make it cute) holding an umbrella as he would bring rain whenever he's doing his job (sounds pretty emo but the film is not all about death). Could not have been a better idea, Takeshi's portrayal as a Death God was much better than those I've seen in DeathNote, Bleach or Final Destination and his chiseled looks and well-styled hair (yes those hair!) were unbeatable. His entire amateurish behaviours and antics as a human being just made the whole movie sweet (probably that's why "Sweet Rain") and not too emo. The female lead was also very strong as the typical OL she portrayed would really move you. Something that I found out after watching quite a couple of Jap movies was that the way they are filmed is way different from American movies. There's a centralised theme in the movie which you could really relate to your actual life (probably due to the urban settings) like in this movie, the movie is actually telling us to accomplish or achieve what we want in life before we say goodbye to this world and not just waste your life away. Honestly, this is a film worthy for you to catch it and you might just end up like me fantasizing being a Death God. Man Death Gods are way cool.