The film's exploration of loss and the gulf of time and memory that separates us from our pasts is beautifully and subtly handled by Kore-eda.

It's creepy, inspired film-making.

Thanks to deadly execution, viewer sympathy ends up going to the cult members who were obviously desperate to escape from the kind of society that makes numbingly tedious, ultimately distancing films like this.

It's very slow and quiet, yet strong undercurrents of emotion fill the screen.