There are two sisters. Chizuko is perfect and excels at everything, but Mika's a bit useless. She's unreliable at schoolwork, the piano and even sports.

A while ago, though, Chizuko died in a freak accident. However, she'll return when Mika gets in trouble after dark with a weirdo.

This is a ghost story, but it's light on the supernatural. Everything's realistic except Mika's ability to see and hear Chizuko. The film's mostly gentle and domestic, although it has undertones. Mum (played by Sumiko Fuji) hasn't been right in the head since Chizuko died. This kind of thing happens. I've seen it. No one should lose a child. Mum's polite and self-effacing, but we're never sure what she's seeing and thinking. Can she see Chizuko too? Mum will eventually think she's a burden on her family, under circumstances where any other human being would be outraged.

A classmate will be mean to Mika... but then this semi-bully herself gets hurt from the very minor fallout. She's fragile. You'll worry about her.

The film's finale goes somewhere bad. You can understand how things turned out that way and even sympathise with everyone, including those who've made inappropriate choices, but Mika doesn't take it well.

I recognised the actor playing Dad, incidentally. His face is distinctive. He's Ittoku Kishibe, who made his debut as a bassist in rock bands, but in 1991 (the same year as this film!) won a Japanese Academy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role. The whole cast's good, though, and Sumiko Fuji as his wife is an even bigger name.

This is a long film, but it carries its length lightly because it's mostly slice-of-supernatural-life (until its darker aspects creep into view). The girls together are living Mika's life, either directly or by proxy. There are things about Mika that want fixing, but that's okay. Chizuko's on the case. She wants to help, although even she doesn't know how much longer she'll be able to stay in the mortal world. In the meantime, though, there's nothing she can't advise with. Long distance running? A piano recital? Whatever it is, Chizuko was better at it than Mika. This film is warm and family friendly (e.g. bath water so opaque that it looks like milk) and there are people who've called this their favourite Nobuhiko Obayashi film. It's more subdued than some of his more famous works (House, Labyrinth of Cinema, etc.), but I can understand how some people might feel that way.