Photo/Illutration A scene from “Bring Him Down to a Portable Size” ((c) 2025 Bring Him Down to a Portable Size Film Partners)

The title of director Ryota Nakano’s first film in five years relates to death and cremation, but the work offers much more than a depressing experience.

“Bring Him Down to a Portable Size” begins with Riko (Ko Shibasaki), a writer living in Shiga Prefecture, receiving a call from Miyagi prefectural police.

An officer asks her to claim the body of her long-estranged older brother (Joe Odagiri), who had died suddenly in his home.

Riko hurriedly packs and heads to the Tohoku region, where she sees his ex-wife, Kanako (Hikari Mitsushima), and daughter, Marina (Himeno Aoyama), for the first time in seven years.

After they cremate the brother and clear out his apartment room, they meet his surviving son, Ryoichi (Yota Mimoto).

Riko had thought her brother was a selfish troublemaker. But when she spends a few days with his family, she learns that he had a different side.

The movie is based on a nonfiction work by translator and essayist Riko Murai, who chronicles her experiences in the book.

“Although it portrays the death of a family member, there are parts that give readers a little chuckle, and I thought it was exactly the same thing as I have been trying to do,” said Nakano, whose previous titles include “Her Love Boils Bathwater” and “Asadake!”

In the film adaptation, the director introduces Riko’s dead brother who appears and talks to her.

The film contains many scenes associated with mourning, such as the funeral. But while sorrow permeates those scenes, the characters are somewhat humorous and affectionate, and they connect with each other through the death of their family member.

The entire film is filled with a cordial and positive atmosphere.

“When someone dies, we think not only about the person but also about how we live,” the director said. “That’s what death is, especially when you lose a family member.”

Nakano himself was a child when his father died.

“I have a sense that that experience gave me something to live for,” he said.

For the director, family has always been a constant theme closely linked with someone’s death.

“That is because I want to portray how people live their lives after losing someone,” he added.

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