Review: "Departures" - 3/9/10

An unexpected hit in Japan and, to date, facing an accrual of about 61 million in returns (not to mention a 2008 Oscar for Best Foreign Language), Yojiro Tokita’s “Departures” takes a deeply felt position on the afterlife and lets your mind swim along to Joe Hisaishi’s compositions. And though its Buddhist ceremonies might be somewhat alien to western viewers, the movie is at once widely accessible.


After a casual misinterpretation of a want ad in a newspaper, Daigo Kobayashi (Motoki)—a cellist who has moved back to his rural country home upon the liquidation of his orchestra—is surprised to find that he has been wrangled into the somewhat unpleasant job of ‘encoffinment’. In other words, he has been inducted into a job as the local mortician. Though that might sound like terrain for all kinds of mischief, either depressingly dramatic or morbid absurdity (in fact it has a smidge of both), Tokita takes the film in a higher direction that manages to straddle the fence between a gentle-hearted humanism and existential therapy.

From a culture in which death is a very serious and close-lipped subject, especially considering all the demons leftover in the closet from their last war, the manner in which the film directly confronts those issues is at once youthfully impudent but surprisingly considerate all the same. In one scene for instance Daigo is confronted by those who oppose his newfound career. Flustered but unperturbed he explains his uncanny attachment in simple but understandable words to those who would judge him. “Death is normal.”

At a little over two hours, the film unfolds at a wonderful pace, like a cherry blossom fending off the dying bits of winter that cling to its petals. It really is hard to figure out where the time goes as the end credits curl up the screen. To be honest I was expecting it to be far more depressing than it really was. Since then I’ve been trying to grasp the dimensions which allow it to somehow transcend that issue of grief, because, indeed, the film seems to cover the entire expanse of emotions,realizing that its beauty is not so much based in ritualistic exoticism as it is in simple truths.

Best when: A.) You’re in the grieving process. B.) Life affirmation is on your fridge to-do list.