 While the book and film share the same premise , the details differ considerably ; Aoki attributed these changes to the studio making the story more commercial . Both feature a protagonist who endures uneasiness and prejudice because of his job as a nōkanshi , undergoes personal growth as a result of his experiences , and finds new meaning in life when confronted with death . In both , the main character deals with societal prejudices and misunderstandings over his profession . In Coffinman , the protagonist was the owner of a pub @-@ café that had gone out of business ; during a domestic squabble his wife threw a newspaper at him , in which he found an ad for the nōkanshi position . He finds pride in his work for the first time when dealing with the body of a former girlfriend . Koyama changed the protagonist from a bar owner to cellist as he wanted cello orchestration for the film score . Other differences included moving the setting from <unk> to Yamagata for filming convenience , making the " letter @-@ stone " a greater part of the plot , and an avoidance of heavier scenes , such as religious ones and one in which Aoki talks of seeing " light " in a swarm of maggots . Koyama also added the subplot in which Daigo is able to forgive his late father ; taken from a novel he was writing , it was intended to close the story with " some sense of happiness " . 
