If Departures were American - would it be a hit? or would it be ruined?

"Departures," its unusual subject matter aside, is an entirely conventional, simple, even saccharine story. The unusual subject and the, for Americans at least, somewhat exotic locale, make the movie watchable, but also tag it as a niche/indie/foreign film. It's about a young man (Daigo), a cellist, who loses his job when his orchestra folds; he and his young wife (Mika) go back to his hometown (Yamagata?) in the far north of Japan, where he finds a job as what here we would call an undertaker's assistant. Evidently, in Japan the undertaker does the funeral arrangements, but a subcontractor actually prepares the bodies, and does so in a ritual ceremony before immediate family. Though these ceremonies are very important to the family, the people who prepare the bodies are social pariahs, kind of like a low caste in India. Who knew? Daigo keeps his new profession secret even from his wife. Through the course of the movie, she learns of his work, leaves, comes back, sees what beautiful work he does. He gradually gains some acceptance in the town, as he builds his love and respect for his aging boss/mentor. More important, the movie builds toward a phony reconciliation of sorts between Daigo and the father who'd abandoned him at 6. Lots of cello playing in background, sometimes in dreamy fantasy sequences. For me, the interest was in learning about this quirky aspect of Japanese culture. As to the movie itself, there's nothing really credible about the plot, but when has that stopped a movie from becoming a hit? I imagine that Departures could be remade at low budget in an American setting and could find a much wider audience (a la Shall we Dance?, Magnificent Seven), though to me that would dissolve all of the elements that make Departures at least somewhat intriguing.