Departures (Okuribito) was the 2009 Oscar winner for best foreign picture. I was browsing my Netflix recommendations to fill out my queue to the “recommended” six movies when I saw this. I remember wanting to watch it after reading the blurbs for the movie as I prepared the ballots for my Oscar pool, so I added it to my queue. This may have been several weeks ago since it takes me at least three weeks to watch one DVD received from Netflix. Luckily, I had this DVD for a couple of days before watching it. I am glad I did because it was a nice movie. I’m not sure if it was the better of the five nominees, but I was moved by it.
Departures is about a cellist who has to move back home to the country from Tokyo after the orchestra he played in disbanded. He moves into the house his mother left for him when she died. The one which was his father’s coffee house, but turned into a corner bar after his father left his family. He moves back with his wife who dutifully followed him but is inwardly disappointed in this setback.
In his hometown, he searches for a job and the only one he finds is that of a casketeer (?), they prepare the bodies of the recently departed before their funeral. It is not a very respectable career as he finds his friends and his wife embarrassed for him. Yet, as he goes about learning the customs, he finds an inner peace that allows him accept it and an inner strength that to prosper at it. His wife doesn’t and she leaves him only to return if he decides to find a new job. His boss convinces him that he was meant to be a casketeer (?). He finds, through the acceptance of the job, what it means to live.
This movie shows the dignity that is extended to the recently deceased in the meticulous preparation of the body. This is expressed through the casketeer (?) trying to make the body beautiful for their families. The lowly work is elevated once the casketeer (?) goes through the elaborate ritual. The families who enlist their services are grateful to them because it makes their last goodbyes just a bit better. The respect shown to the bodies is reflected back at them for the work that they do.
Reconciliation happens for the couple when she comes back to their house to tell him she’s pregnant. She begins to accept her husbands job as she sees that he is suited for it and that it is a dignified career. She finally accepts his work when he must prepare the body of his estranged father. She grew to love him all over again watching the ceremonial preparations of the body. It makes him human and a man.
The death of his father allows him to put to rest his past. He doesn’t at first want to go, because he doesn’t remember his father, but his wife and his co-workers cajole him to go. There he finds that although they never saw each other for over thirty years, his father still had thoughts of him in his heart. He prepares his body, his wife loves him, and they share this moment for them and for their future.
I’ll admit that I shed a few tears in this movie. Watching it brought back memories of the days leading up to my father’s funeral. Dignity is extended to the dead and it is acceptable to know and celebrate them. When we can accept it, we can accept death as a part of living. It is paying respect to the dead that we can go on living for the future. It is for the past, a way for looking towards the future, and an acceptance of our present.
4 of 5 stars.
