Ikigami - 24 Hours To Live

I forgot to mention that when I was flying back from London trying not to cry from watching Marley & Me there was another movie that got me started welling up. That was the Ikigami. It's not on Netflix and I don't think the movie has a US distributor yet but when it does, watch it. It takes place in near future Japan where there is a "prosperity law" in effect. During childhood inoculations random children receive a poison capsule that is set to go off and stop its host's heart at a set date between the ages of 18-24. People who are scheduled to die are informed 24-hours before the time comes and receive free food, transportation, and a lump-sum payment courtesy of the Japanese government. If the person commits a crime after they have been informed, the payment goes to the victim of that crime. The law is meant to promote the idea that life it to be lived to the fullest among the youth of Japan and to counteract the high suicide rates of the past. The movie's protagonist is a 25 year old who has just been hired to be one of people who deliver this news. It features the stories of 3 recipients of this news and how each reacts to it. The first story had me wiping my eyes. While I generally don't like remakes, I do kind of want this one to get remade. It was a great movie, but I didn't really have a resolution. A lot of Japanese movies are weird for the sake of being weird and some don't bother to make any sense at all, but this one really had something and I get a sense that the director or writer didn't know exactly how to end the story. It should still be seen and if this is the only version of Ikigami to see outside of the manga, then I am happy with it.