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.
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 (Ryōko 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.
Author's note: If you are wondering why this review changed from when I
first published it, well, the Blogger IPhone app deleted the original file and
I had to quickly come up with a review. Sorry if this is an inconvenience to
you. It is an undersirable inconvenience to me but having finished this one,
well, a blessing in disguise.
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