If Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Licence to Live had been a Hollywood movie, they'd call it "feelgood".But this wry, black-ish comedy avoids all sentimental certainties and emotional clichés. Instead, it sustains a series of surprises right up to the closing moments.

A young man wakes from a 10-year coma. He has missed everything from the collapse of the USSR to the strains of puberty, not to mention the divorce of his parents. His half-hearted efforts to pick up the pieces pose questions about the strength (and importance?) of family ties and friendships. Nothing like last year's psycho-thriller Cure, this is Kurosawa's best film yet. Tony Rayns