If this movie doesn't make you want to call up your parents and tell them how much you appreciate everything they've done for you, you have no soul -- or had a really bad childhood.

Utterly depressing but not pedantic, the film looks at the tragedy of outliving one's usefulness with grace as a one generation of a Japanese family passes off their parents onto the next sibling, with the only compassion coming from the one person who isn't related to them.

And the ending is flat-out brilliant; it's a surprise, but totally in character.