Departures

Shattered by the disbandment of the orchestra for which he played the cello, Daigo Kobayashi found himself without a job and a huge amount of still unpaid installments for an expensive cello. He and his wife moved to his hometown. There they didn’t need to pay rent since his mother left him a house when she died. Back in his hometown he reluctantly accepted a high-paying job as an undertaker, which he kept from his wife. His new work, which could be his true calling, was despised by people around him. It’s quite ironic that he seemed to understand what life is all about having had to deal with dead corpses and the families and friends of the dead in different states of grief while performing the elaborate art of coffining the dead.

This “fragile” and, sometimes, gently humorous film by Yojiro Takita deserves the Best Foreign Language Film award it won during the 81st Academy Awards last month. Everything in it – ensemble acting, cinematography, script, music, and directing – is excellent. Liam’s Neeson’s announcing Japan’s Okuribito (Departures) as the winner, edging out favorites and frontrunners, Waltz With Bashir (Israel) and The Class (France), was a shocker. That was a big-time shocker because none had actually expected the film to be nominated in the first place. But, after watching the film, I was shocked for the third time to have found this beautiful film truly deserving of the award.