D. Toshiyuki Teruya |Jpn |2018

A dysfunctional family comes together for an unorthodox Okinawan tradition

Set on Aguni, an island 60 kilometres northwest of Okinawa’s capital, Naha, Born Bone Born provides viewers a glimpse of a little-known Okinawan funerary ritual. Four years after Emiko’s death, her family reunites to participate in her senkotsu (bone washing) ceremony. Since her death, her widowed husband has become an alcoholic and her daughter is heavily pregnant and facing life as a single mother. Nothing has been easy for the family since Emiko died, and now they are forced to deal with each other’s problems in addition to their own.

Born Bone Born is a film at once unnerving and poignant, beautifully strange and universally human. Based on Teruya Toshiyuki’s short film born, bone, boon, Born Bone Born takes a melancholic story and deftly spins it into a light-hearted, comedic drama about the foibles of family, and how they will always be there for you in the end—even if they have to be dragged, kicking and screaming.

Watch trailer here