This is a tender, at times comic, look at a group of suicidal Japanese citizens planning to die in a tour bus "accident." United by heavy debts and the promise of insurance money for their families, the motley group of businessmen, gamblers, teenagers, and retirees assembles on Okinawa in the hopes of touring the island, taking snapshots, singing karaoke, then driving their bus over an ocean cliff. No one is prepared, however, for the arrival of Mitsuki, a giddy young woman who has cluelessly acquired an uncle's leftover bus ticket. Weaving between the pathetic, the mournful, and the humorous with controlled grace, Ikinai is further sharpened by exquisitely droll ensemble acting, inspired comic set pieces, and a breezy Andean score.-Jason Sanders