Laying the dead to rest is a delicate business. For Shingo Iguchi (Pierre Taki), the stone-faced protagonist of Katsuya Kobayashi’s “Horizon,” it involves hitching a ride on a fishing boat with a cooler containing bags of cremated remains, which he carefully consigns to the ocean.
As funerary rites go, it’s a more economical alternative to interring ashes at a cemetery. However, a potential customer is probably lowballing him when she offers a crumpled ¥10,000 note and a couple of candies as payment.
While Shingo goes about his work with an appropriate sense of dignity, he’s otherwise your archetypal middle-aged slob. He spends his evenings out drinking and leaves all the cooking and housework to his daughter, Nao (Aino Kuribayashi).