‘Phases of the Moon’: A thoughtful yet unconvincing tale of rebirth

Belief in reincarnation is widespread in South and East Asia, but less so in the West. So Ryuichi Hiroki’s multilayered melodrama “Phases of the Moon,” in which reincarnation is a central theme, may not easily cross certain cultural and religious barriers.

Not that the film, based on a bestselling novel by Shogo Sato, proselytizes for a given religion. Instead, it treats reincarnation as a fact — one that the protagonist, a former elite salaryman who lost his wife and teenage daughter in a tragic accident, can’t readily accept.

A veteran maker of commercial romantic dramas and acclaimed indie films, Hiroki brings his usual sensitive visual touch and tasteful musical approach to this material, with vocalist and songwriter Mari Fukushige providing a poignant musical counterpoint to the on-screen action. But the script, by Hiroshi Hashimoto, leans toward the literal, while the proceedings occasionally descend to the ponderous. If you find the idea of dead people speaking through the living odd or unsettling, this film will give you some queasy moments. As a reincarnation agnostic, however, I found its take on the subject revealing, bringing to the surface deep-seated beliefs that are often unspoken in Japan.

We first meet the protagonist, Kei Osanai (Yo Oizumi), in 2007 as a fishery worker in his native Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture. Then the scene soon shifts to the city of Tama in Tokyo, where he meets Yui Midorizaka (Sairi Ito), a 20-something mother, and her young daughter, Ruri, in a hotel lounge. Roll back the years to 1980, when Kei weds Kozue (Ko Shibasaki), a college classmate, and not long after has a daughter with her, also named Ruri. In 1988, Kozue notices that Ruri is acting oddly mature while demonstrating uncanny abilities in drawing and English.

Then the girl runs away. When a worried Kei comes to pick her up after an alert cop spots her near a record shop, she strangely tells him, “I’ll never forget the kind things you did.” Flash forward to 1999 when Ruri (Hinako Kikuchi), now a teenager, is best pals with high school classmate Yui (Ito again) to whom she divulges a secret: She is not what she seems. Then soon after, both Ruri and Kozue die — or do they?

There is much more to the story, including a doomed romance in the early 1980s between an earnest record store employee (Ren Meguro) and a conflicted older woman named — what else? — Ruri (Kasumi Arimura).

For all its layers of plot and shifts back and forth in time, the film keeps its narrative lines clear enough. As Yui, the talented Ito serves as a reliable, if at times disconcerting, navigator to not only the tangled story but also the mysteries of reincarnation. Meanwhile, Oizumi, who usually appears in lighter roles, movingly embodies Kei’s stages of grief with little overemoting. For that, I suppose he should thank Hiroki, who has a way of drawing career-best performances from his stars.

Will “Phases of the Moon” convince audiences that reincarnation is real? My agnostic’s answer: “The Sixth Sense” was a great movie, but it didn’t make me believe in ghosts.