Death is inevitable. It is certain. Death is a sensitive matter. People know its coming but avoid talking about it. In terms of movies, we associate death with horror and thriller flicks meant to play with our imagination and strike our senses with fear. Then came the movie "Okuribito" or better known internationally as "Departures" by Yojiro Takita. This movie tackles the issues and realities of death in a different and loving light, endearing us to the different characters and their stories.This is a movie worth watching, not by the dead, but definitely by the living.
Plot Summary (Spoiler Warning with some parts taken from Wikipedia.com)
Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a professionally-trained cellist in Tokyo, loses his job when his orchestra is dissolved. He decides to move back to his hometown, Yamagata, with his wife Mika (Ryลko Hirosue). Daigo's family used to run a small coffee shop. His father ran away with the waitress when Daigo was very young, and his mother raised him by herself. His mother died two years ago, and left him the house where he grew up. Daigo feels guilty about not having taken better care of his mother.
Back home, Daigo finds an advertisement in the newspaper for "assisting departures". He goes to the interview, uncertain of the job's nature. He is hired on the spot after only one question ("Will you work hard?") and being handed an "advance" by his new boss Sasaki (Tsutomu Yamazaki). He discovers that the job involves preparing the dead or encofiination, the Japanese art of preparing dead bodies for cremation. Daigo reluctantly accepts. He returns to his wife and tells her he will be performing some sort of ceremony.
Daigo completes a number of assignments and experiences the gratitude of those left behind, gaining a sense of fulfillment. But Mika finds the DVD and begs him to give up such a "disgusting profession." Daigo refuses to quit, so she leaves. Even Yamashita, his old schoolfriend, tells him to get "a proper job."
After a few months, Daigo's wife returns, announcing that she is pregnant. She seems to assume that he will get a different job. While Daigo and Mika try to work things out, the telephone rings with the news that Tsuyako, Yamashita's mother, has died. In front of Yamashita, his family and Mika, Daigo prepares her body. The ritual earns the respect of all present, including his wife who now understands Daigo's new-found purpose in life. During cremation, Tsuyako's friend appears as the cremator. He thinks that death is not the "end" but the "gate to a next stage".
They are informed of the elder Kobayashi's death. Daigo refuses to see him, but his coworker convinces him to go, confessing that she herself abandoned her son in Hokkaido when he was only six. Sasaki invites him to take one of the display coffins. Daigo and Mika go to see the body of his father, but Daigo finds that he cannot recognize him. As the funeral workers carelessly handle the body, he angrily stops them, and his wife explains that her husband prepares the dead for burial as a living, thereby tacitly admitting that she has come to accept his work. Daigo takes over the dressing of his father's body, Daigo finds the stone-letter he had given to his father when he was little, in his father's hands. He is at last able to recognize his father from his childhood memory. As he finishes the ceremony, Daigo gently presses the stone-letter to Mika's pregnant belly.
My Take
Departures use death as a backdrop to tackle the age-old question of reaching one's ambition or to face one's reality. In the movie, Daigo eventually relents to the latter, accepting his place as a preparer of the dead and in the process learns to love his new "life's purpose". The movie also tackles other issues such as homosexuality, familial ties and abandonment, then ties everything up in the end flawlessly.
Despite the movie's simplicity (by Hollywood standards), it is never dull nor boring thanks to superb acting from Motoki (Daigo) and Tsutomu Yamazaki (Mr. Sasaki). The lines and dialogues are often short but easy to follow as acting never fails to deliver the descriptiveness needed to complete each scene. Director Takita obviously focused on the important bits leaving out over dramatization and too much scene clutter for the sake of effective cinematics. In that regard, the movie proved to be simple and profound without any pretentions. It is beautiful, inspiring and touching in every angle. The funny moments are effective while heavier dramatic scenes are moving. It subtly captures the quaintness and stoicism of Japanese culture and glamorizes encoffination that you'd most probably want to have the ceremonials done to you when you die. Of course, encoffination is an artform, much like the tea ceremony but intead of pouring tea for guests, you prepare a dead body instead.
In 2009, Departures won an Academy for Best Foreign Film. Unfortunately, it saw limited release in North America. I got my copy from on sale DVDs when Blockbuster Canada closed and I'm glad I grabbed that copy. Last night, it won my heart and my wife's tears. This is a movie worth watching, not by the dead, but definitely by the living.
Departures use death as a backdrop to tackle the age-old question of reaching one's ambition or to face one's reality. In the movie, Daigo eventually relents to the latter, accepting his place as a preparer of the dead and in the process learns to love his new "life's purpose". The movie also tackles other issues such as homosexuality, familial ties and abandonment, then ties everything up in the end flawlessly.
Despite the movie's simplicity (by Hollywood standards), it is never dull nor boring thanks to superb acting from Motoki (Daigo) and Tsutomu Yamazaki (Mr. Sasaki). The lines and dialogues are often short but easy to follow as acting never fails to deliver the descriptiveness needed to complete each scene. Director Takita obviously focused on the important bits leaving out over dramatization and too much scene clutter for the sake of effective cinematics. In that regard, the movie proved to be simple and profound without any pretentions. It is beautiful, inspiring and touching in every angle. The funny moments are effective while heavier dramatic scenes are moving. It subtly captures the quaintness and stoicism of Japanese culture and glamorizes encoffination that you'd most probably want to have the ceremonials done to you when you die. Of course, encoffination is an artform, much like the tea ceremony but intead of pouring tea for guests, you prepare a dead body instead.
In 2009, Departures won an Academy for Best Foreign Film. Unfortunately, it saw limited release in North America. I got my copy from on sale DVDs when Blockbuster Canada closed and I'm glad I grabbed that copy. Last night, it won my heart and my wife's tears. This is a movie worth watching, not by the dead, but definitely by the living.
