Ikinai

Okinawa, 30 December 1997. Aragaki, the melancholy organiser of a strange journey, is waiting for his last passenger. The bus is ready to leave. On board are twelve people who have decided to end their lives. They all have debts or other problems they can’t solve. By making their collective suicide look like an accident, they are at least trying to ensure that their relatives can profit from the life insurance. At the last moment, the young and vivacious Mitsuki turns up. She was given the bus ticket by her uncle. She is not party to the plan and has no idea what is ahead of her. Mitsuki is the spanner that threatens to get in the works of the merciless murder machine. She only has three days toawaken some new lust for life among her desperate fellow passengers. But Aragaki has decided to carry on to the bitter end…Ikinai, produced by Kitano Takeshi’s company, is a sober sketch of everyday despair in today’s Japan: financial problems, divorces, sexual inhibitions and terminal loneliness.’Kitano without the guns’ (Variety). ‘Ikinai is a thoughtful, complex exploration of human sadness and redemption, told with much gentle humour and a genuine love for his pathetic characters.’ (Noah Cowan, Toronto Film Festival)