San Diego Asian Film Festival 2008

In the same vein as Always: Sunset on Third Street, ACCURACY OF DEATH is a charming tale about the Grim Reaper and his talking dog that celebrates the idea that life is worth living. Taiwanese/Japanese heartthrob Takeshi Kaneshiro (The Returner) plays an angel of God who is assigned to spend a week with the unfortunate humans chosen for a sudden demise. His task is to decide whether the person deserves a second chance, or if he is to “proceed.”

Stretched across thirty years – in which Kaneshiro’s character never ages – the charismatic but lonely Grim Reaper encounters three lost souls. In 1988, he considers the case of a young office lady who lives an unlucky life she hardly considers worth living. In 2008, he has to judge the death-worthiness of a middle-aged yakuza trapped in the middle of a gang war. And in the future, he meets a feisty hair stylist who has reached the end of her life but also managed to alienate her entire family.

Kaneshiro, who has appeared in films by Wong Kar-Wai, Zhang Yimou and John Woo, takes an unpromising part and turns in an amazing performance, telegraphing emotion with a well-timed tilt of the head or a slight smile. By the time the movie ends, he has single-handedly sold the audience on the idea that death is an inevitable part of being alive and there’s never a need to fear the reaper.

Co-presented by:
Japan Society of San Diego and Tijuana
San Diego Japanese Language & Culture Meetup Group