In this blog post, we’ll explore the quiet farewell between a father and his daughter as portrayed in the film “Ending Note.”

Movie Information

Movie: “Ending Note” (2011)
Documentary / 90 minutes
Director: Mami Snada
Synopsis – After retiring, Tomoaki Snada is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Rather than giving in to despair, he creates a bucket list and spends his remaining time fulfilling each item one by one.

Why I Chose This Film

Death is a factor that profoundly stirs human emotions. Therefore, films that deal with death tend to deeply move audiences. In particular, the documentary genre lends a sense of reality to death, making its message resonate even more deeply.
I used to find films about death uninteresting because they tend to stir up emotional turmoil without any particular narrative devices. This film also does not rely on any special devices. However, it makes me rethink its significance by showing an attitude that accepts death with remarkable composure.
Death is difficult for anyone to accept, yet it is something we must accept. Few people can remain genuinely composed in the face of death. The characters in this film attempt to let death pass by either appearing composed or pretending to be so, yet paradoxically, their fear of death seeps through.
Therefore, rather than stimulating the audience’s emotions through death itself, this film allows us to simultaneously feel a love for life and a fear of death through the outwardly calm demeanor of those facing death.

Sequence Analysis

Sequence 1: Tomoki Sunada’s Funeral

The film begins with Tomoki Sunada’s funeral. By informing the audience from the very start that he has ultimately met his end, it prevents viewers from harboring the futile hope that “he won’t die” as the story unfolds. Instead, it lends credibility to the actions depicted in the film as things people facing death might do.
The funeral scene uses erratic camera movements to convey a sense of chaos, while the calm narration in contrast gives the impression of humbly accepting death. Narration such as “Thank you for coming to my funeral” and “I’m sorry for causing such a commotion” renders the atmosphere of the funeral both solemn and awe-inspiring.

Sequence 2. Tomoaki Snada’s Bucket List

After the funeral, Tomoaki Snada’s bucket list begins in earnest. The items on the list appear one by one, and we see Snada striving to fulfill each one, alongside his family who accompany him through the process.
Additionally, flashbacks of Snada’s past are revealed during this process, creating a stark contrast between his current and past states.

Sequence 3. Tomoki Sunada’s Death

Tomoki Sunada’s condition suddenly deteriorates, and he is hospitalized. The death they had been preparing for becomes a reality, but the family cannot remain completely composed in that moment. Nevertheless, everyone tries to accept the death they had prepared for.
In the final scene, the family faces death with composure, just as they had practiced, with the focus on sound. Unlike the bucket list in Sequence 2, the final bucket list remains the family’s responsibility, and the film continues to show their efforts to fulfill it. The film then returns to the funeral scene where it began.
At this moment, Tomoki Sunada conveys the words he wanted to say, and the car carrying him drives away. The scenery visible through the window and the music convey the sense that the remaining family members—not Snada—wished for their bucket list to remain there.

Film Analysis

The film is narrated by the youngest daughter, Mami Snada. Death affects not only the person who dies but also everyone connected to them, including family and friends. Therefore, the fact that the youngest daughter—who was likely most deeply affected by the death—serves as the narrator may feel jarring at first.
However, Mami Snada’s narration is very matter-of-fact and composed. It is so detached that it almost sounds as if she is recounting her father’s death from his own perspective. In fact, this composure seems possible precisely because she has thought deeply about and prepared for her father’s death.
Through this composed narration, Mami Snada’s grief and sorrow are conveyed all the more deeply. Phrases like “It looks like this winter will be cold,” scattered throughout, reveal her personal thoughts and sound even sadder.
Since Mami Snada filmed this work herself, it has a home-video-like format and atmosphere. Scenes from the past that could not be captured on video are replaced with photographs, giving the impression that this documentary is not merely a record of the moment Snada decided to prepare for death, but an extension of the process through which she had been contemplating death long before that.
Everyone faces death at a different time. It is easy to distance oneself from thoughts of death until it approaches directly, but as the time draws near, the past naturally comes to mind. In this film, the use of archival footage and photographs highlights the immersion in life and the contrast between the present and the past, making the difference between the two even more vivid.
Furthermore, the music that plays at the end of the film leaves a lasting impression. The view outside the window feels as if Tomoaki Snada is seeing it himself, and the music that begins after the narration ends seems to convey the thoughts Mami Snada could not put into words and the things she wanted to say to her father.
The restrained use of music further amplifies the emotion of the final piece, allowing the audience to feel a lasting sense of longing and gratitude toward her father.
The most unique aspect of this film is that, despite dealing with a bucket list and death, the story unfolds from Mami Snada’s perspective. It makes one wonder how she, who grew up as a playful youngest daughter, was able to accept her father’s death with such humility and recount his final moments with such composure.
Her father’s death must have been a difficult and unwanted event for the youngest daughter to accept. Nevertheless, the reason Mami Suna chose to film and narrate the documentary herself was likely her desire to capture her father’s essence in its entirety. While documenting her father’s frail, declining condition, she must have regretted not having captured his healthier days, and there were surely many moments when she was overcome with emotion.
However, she set aside her personal emotions to document her father’s story in a way that would honor the death of the man she respected and aspired to emulate. This choice appears to be an effort to imbue her father’s death with even greater significance.

Conclusion

Therefore, this film is akin to a gift from a daughter to her father. The daughter and her family faced death together as they documented her father’s final moments one by one, and through this process, the father was able to accept his death with composure and humility.
The film’s title, “Ending Note,” does not simply refer to the father’s death. It refers to that final moment—the “ending”—that the father shared with his daughter and the rest of the family. While that moment marks the end, all the moments they shared and recorded remain, never truly ending.