The movie Okuribito aka as Departures (English title) won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year. In 2008 Departures won 9 Award of the Japanese Academy. The film has won over 30 awards worldwide and nominated for even more awards. It is that good.
I enjoy foreign films. I look at the films as a study of foreign culture. I like the realistic films of everyday life. This film took me places I had not thought about in other cultures. Departures introduced me to "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer" a profession that prepares the dead for cremation.
The film starts out in Tokyo, where Daigo, a cellist, has lost his job when the orchestra he worked for dissolved. He and his wife Mika decide to move back to his hometown, to the home his mother left him when she passed away two years prior.
Looking for work when he arrives back home he answers an ad in the newspaper asking for help with departures. Daigo thinks the job is with a travel agency. During the interview, he is told the newspaper ad is a misprint and it is working with the departed. Desperate for work he accepts the job.
From this point onward, the movie takes the viewer on a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Departures take the viewer from outright laughter to silent tears. It is that good.
Unlike American funeral homes, where the deceased is prepared, put into a coffin, and presented to the family, in Japan the departed is washed and prepared in the home and in front of the grieving family.
Nokanshi is an art. Imagine kneeling before a body, in front of the grieving family and stuffing the nasal and anal cavities with such beauty and gracefulness, that no one knows what you are doing. It is difficult not to be awe struck by the ceremony.
Daigo has problems with friends and his wife about his new profession; they want him to find an honorable job.
In working with the dead Daigo learns about life in general and his life in particular.
The DVD is in Japanese with English subtitles. The running time is 131 minutes.Long, but not long where you think it is over and more story is shown and you start squirming in your seat, but when you thinks is over and shows more and you think great, I get to see more. It is that good.
I enjoy foreign films. I look at the films as a study of foreign culture. I like the realistic films of everyday life. This film took me places I had not thought about in other cultures. Departures introduced me to "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer" a profession that prepares the dead for cremation.
The film starts out in Tokyo, where Daigo, a cellist, has lost his job when the orchestra he worked for dissolved. He and his wife Mika decide to move back to his hometown, to the home his mother left him when she passed away two years prior.
Looking for work when he arrives back home he answers an ad in the newspaper asking for help with departures. Daigo thinks the job is with a travel agency. During the interview, he is told the newspaper ad is a misprint and it is working with the departed. Desperate for work he accepts the job.
From this point onward, the movie takes the viewer on a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Departures take the viewer from outright laughter to silent tears. It is that good.
Unlike American funeral homes, where the deceased is prepared, put into a coffin, and presented to the family, in Japan the departed is washed and prepared in the home and in front of the grieving family.
Nokanshi is an art. Imagine kneeling before a body, in front of the grieving family and stuffing the nasal and anal cavities with such beauty and gracefulness, that no one knows what you are doing. It is difficult not to be awe struck by the ceremony.
Daigo has problems with friends and his wife about his new profession; they want him to find an honorable job.
In working with the dead Daigo learns about life in general and his life in particular.
The DVD is in Japanese with English subtitles. The running time is 131 minutes.Long, but not long where you think it is over and more story is shown and you start squirming in your seat, but when you thinks is over and shows more and you think great, I get to see more. It is that good.
