Movies: Departures

"Academy Award® Winner for Best Foreign Language Film of the year, "Departures" is a delightful and sensitive journey into the heartland of Japan and an astonishingly beautiful look at a sacred part of Japan's cultural heritage.

A premiere symphony orchestra in Tokyo disbands, leaving Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) suddenly unemployed. With wife Mika (Ryoko Hirosue) in tow, he moves back to his home town in the northeastern prefecture of Yamagata.

Spotting a Help Wanted ad featuring the word “departures,” he is excited about the prospect of trying a new career in the travel industry. The company owner, Sasaki (Tsutomu Yamazaki), hires him on the spot. Daigo finally ventures to ask what is involved, exactly, and is stunned to learn what he has gotten himself into: the ceremonial “encoffination” of corpses prior to cremation.

In desperate straits, Daigo overcomes his initial trepidation and begins to travel around Hirano with Sasaki. True to Sasaki’s expectations, Daigo develops a deep respect for life in all its variations, and a profound empathy for people trying to make peace with the finality of death.

Too embarrassed to tell his wife about his conversation-stopping profession and admit that he has fallen in love with the townsfolk, Daigo vainly tries to keep his new life secret. As their relationship hangs in the balance, the big question is how he’s going to react to surprising news she brings, as an encoffineer, as a husband, as a son and as a human being. It is Daigo’s turn to deal with life and death among the people who are dearest to him."

I do admit I was a little nervous about watching this film. From the beginning, I didn't know what it was about besides a story about a guy who works in a mortuary (in the end, it was not a mortuary, but an "encoffiner" - someone who cleanses and dresses corpses prior to cremation).

I figured my discomfort stemmed from a life long learning that death itself is a taboo. In my lifetime, I have been to funerals of relatives and strangers. Most of these ceremonies are filled with rituals and protocols. For Chinese (Buddhist/Taoist), when a body is lifted into the coffin or when the coffin is moved in any way, spectators have to turn their eyes away or turn their backs facing the scene. Everytime when something like this happened, there was this slight irrational fear that if I managed to sneak a peek, what would happen to me? Eternal bad luck?

I was in awe of the ceremonial “encoffination” of the Japanese portrayed in the movie. Their deep respect for the deceased moved me so much.

I haven't shed tears in a movie for a long time.