A married couple who has been married for 3 years is doing well. But then something strange happens when the husband comes home one day. He finds his wife dead. Fortunately, she is not dead, she pretends to have died. But this repeats every single day, and it gets tiring for the husband. And he wonders why she plays dead all the time.
When I Get Home, My Wife Always Pretends to Be Dead is a charming Japanese movie about marriage and communication. The married couple in the movie has communication problems. Especially the woman who plays dead all the time keeps things inside her. She lost her mother at a young age, and it terrifies her that the people she loves will die before her. But why is she playing dead? Is this a cry for help or is it an attempt to keep the relationship interesting?
The movie is well-acted and interesting. I was just waiting for the woman to open up and explain to us why she’s doing this. It’s hard to understand completely. As a viewer, you invent your own theories, but the movie never really answers why she does it. So it’s not a movie that feeds its viewers with a teaspoon, and that is good.
It is impossible not to be charmed by Nana Eikura who plays the slightly eccentric woman. She is good-natured and charming all the time. Although her character is constantly thinking of playing dead, she’s the light of the movie. Ken Yasuda who plays her husband is also very good as the husband who’s getting tired of his wife’s behavior. He has to hold back a lot, and it’s interesting to see if he also will change as a person.
The movie also takes up marriage problems that happen around the couple. They have some friends who struggle with their marriage. And this makes the married couple we follow think a little and philosophize.
I’ve always liked these quirky Japanese movies that stand out in the crowd. Some of these movies can be terrible, while movies like When I Get Home, My Wife Always Pretends to Be Dead gives me hope that there are still movies made with their own identity.