The English-language title's a lie, although more attention-grabbing than imdb's alternative (The Discarnates). This is a gentle ghost story with a bit of zombie make-up at one point. Absolutely no proper zombies. No flesh-chomping. It's an ordinary movie that's set in the real world and you'd never expect supernatural elements to start creeping in.

Its protagonist, Hidemi Harada, is a recently divorced TV writer. He's the one who ended his marriage and he's equally short with a lady who knocks on his door one evening with a bottle. I didn't like him. He's not obnoxious, but he's a bit of a cold fish and I didn't see why I should care about him. He writes his scripts, brushes away attempted human contact and doesn't seem to have any desires or motivations, or indeed anything that makes him interesting. We never even know much about his writing, so we can't get involved in that either. He says he's happier on his own... but he has an understated reaction when a colleague of his admits to having always fancied Harada's wife and to wanting to ask her out now she's available.

He meets some nice people who help him out of his shell. He finds more joy in life. He lets that doorstep lady shag him. What he doesn't know, though, is the price of associating with the afterlife.

"Your folks...? I thought they were dead."

"I thought so, too."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Don't think ill of them. They're good people. I'm so happy with them. They're so sweet. When I was twelve, Dad was riding a bicycle with Mom. A truck hit them. They were both killed. Now that I've met them again, I can't resist the happiness. It's a wonderful experience. I don't care what you say. Maybe they're ghosts or monsters? It doesn't matter. They could be zombies... I don't give a damn. I'm just happy."

The story being told is sort of nice-ish, but there's a disquieting question mark over the timing and cause of a past suicide. Also, for me, Harada just isn't interesting. He's like an everyman, except that I personally couldn't relate to him. We never meet his wife (although we hear a message she leaves on his answerphone), so we have no perspective on that side of him either and we've been given no reason to think that the poor lady did anything wrong at all. We meet his teenage son, but Harada's not great at talking to him either. This is a protagonist who's missing something in his life and finds growth and peace, which is a story that's often been told in movies, but this particular attempt didn't work for me because I was bouncing off Harada.

In principle, though, I like the story being told. Both the character journey (in principle) and the supernatural stuff should have been up my alley.