Maborosi

Documentarist Koreeda's quietly devastating first fiction feature is about a young woman deeply troubled by the fear that she brings death to her nearest and dearest. Having lost her grandmother (to old age) and her first husband (to an inexplicable suicide), she lives happily in a fishing village with her second husband, but something inside remains frozen. Made under the benign influence of Hou Xiaoxian, the tale is told in contemplative wide-angle shots; the absence of any spurious, unearned intimacy with the characters makes the climactic scenes profoundly moving.