Until The Break of Dawn ツナグ

I watched this movie on the flight back home and I cried. So, I wore mask to hide that! Luckily the person who sat next to me was a stranger.

until the break of dawn (photo from Google)

It is about an apprentice, Ayumi who are learning from his grandmother to become a connector / intermediary between the dead and the living. One of the special characteristics is that both the living and the departed have only one chance. The living only have one chance to meet with the dead, and the dead can only meet the living once too! The living will contact the connector to express the desire to meet the dead, then the connector will find the dead and inform him or her about the living request. If the dead agreed to that request, the connector will arrange for a meeting. 

There is only one connector per time, so before the grandmother pass the baton to the grandchild, she asked him to set up three meetings to test the water and gave him a chance to meet a departed before the power is pass on. Ayumi parents were dead since he was a child and there were rumours about his father's infidelity. The connector is not able see the departed, so the grandmother is giving Ayumi a chance to meet either one of his parents before he become the connector.

The first meeting was between a small business owner with his departed mother. He claimed that he need to find the property grants in order to sell it. However, the actual reason was that he wanted to know whether his mother knew that he kept the information of her sickness from her. But her mother thanked him for keeping it a secret and made her remaining days free of agony. He was relieved and thanked Ayumi. By this point, Ayumi was happy because he felt that he had helped someone.

Then, the second job came from his classmate, Arashi. Arashi misunderstood her best friend, Misono and thought that her mindless act caused her best friend death because on Misono's deathbed, Misono kept saying,"why, Arashi?" She was afraid that Misono would use the connector to tell people that she was the killer, so she decided to meet with Misono first because everyone have only one chance, if Misono met her first, then Misono couldn't tell other people. However, when Arashi met with Misono and looked into her innocent eyes, she couldn't tell Misono that she was the one who might caused her death. When the time almost finished, Misono asked Arashi to ask Ayumi whether he had any message for her, and asked Arashi to tell her when they meet again (meaning when Arashi dies too). When Ayumi told Arashi the message, Arashi realised that Misono knew what she had done and regretted for not telling her. By this point, Ayumi had doubt to the connector's job.

The third case was from a salary man asking the connector to find his missing fiancée. He wanted to know whether she is still alive or not. However, when Ayumi told him that he had set up the meeting with his dead fiancée, he chickened out, he did not want to accept that his fiancée is dead, he would rather believe that she played him. However, Ayumi found him and encouraged him to meet her. They settled their differences.

Then, Ayumi realised that the connector's job is to ensure that the living can get a closure and move on with their lives. So, he told his grandmother that he is willing to take over the connector's job. His grandmother then wanted to tell him the secret of his parents death. However, he told her that he figured out that his father was a connector too. His grandmother told him that she suspected that Ayumi's mother suspected that Ayumi's father was having an affair and looked into the forbidden mirror (the connector's tool, only the connector can look into it, if a non-connector looks into it, both the non-connector and the connector will suffer a uncomfortable death). However, Ayumi comforted the grandmother that his mom knew that his father was a connector, and she looked into the mirror to help his dad to reconcile with his grandfather. It was later revealed that Ayumi was trying to lessen his grandmother guilt and decided it is better for the living to go on with their lives, then to keep the guilt and make the life miserable.

# one of the special features of the movie was that the ghost will appear with a physical body. (special)