Nine lugubrious men meet on a tour bus outside Naha Airport in Okinawa, joining a tour organiser, a guide and a driver, all of them dead serious. All with debts they cannot pay, they plan to die in an ‘accidental’ crash two days later; the ‘tour’ is a scam to enable their dependents to claim insurance payments, plus, of course, compensation from the prefectural authorities for the ‘unsafe’ road. At the last minute, though, a young woman arrives to use a ticket bought by her uncle, now in an asylum. The organiser Aragaki (played by Dankan, also the screenwriter) has no choice but to let her on the bus. Over the next 48 hours, inevitably, the unsuspecting girl spontaneously reawakens a desire to live in most of her fellow ‘tourists’. But can Aragaki allow the planned crash to be called off? There`s a dash of black comedy in Ikinai (it means ‘Not to Live’), but the core of the film is a surprisingly moving and thoughtful account of the ways people deal with stress, responsibility and failure. Shimizu Hiroshi has been Kitano Takeshi`s first assistant since Sonatine, and this is the first film from Office Kitano not to be made by Kitano himself. Shimizu`s accomplishment here suggests that he will have a fine career in his own right. (Tony Rayns)