Finally, I get to watch this award-winning Japanese movie, Departures おくりびと (2008) last week. Departures is an extremely moving and sentimental film directed by Yojiro Takita. This movie depicts a glimpse of a Japanese profession - encoffiner.
Young cellist Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) and his wife, Mika (Ryoko Hirosue) move back to Daigo's small hometown after his orchestra in Tokyo is disbanded. After he answers a job advertisement in a newspaper in "assisting departures", he reluctantly becomes an encoffiner who sends the "departed" to a new journey by cleaning, dressing, and placing the corpse into a coffin. At the beginning, Daigo dislikes his job, but slowly, after being assigned for a few rituals of encoffinments, he learns the importance of his work and the role he plays in bringing closure to the family of the deceased and sending the departed to their final destination.
Mika disapproves him after she finds out about his job and hopes that he gets a "proper" and "normal" job instead. However, her perception changes after she sees his work. She begins to appreciate his husband's job as an encoffiner who possesses impeccable precision, gentleness and utmost respect.
There is no doubt that this profession is often misunderstood and shunned by most of us because we have been always avoiding to talk about the inevitable - death. Also, most people do not see it as a career. Departures tells us that death is normal. The profession is actually quite dignified as encoffiners are entrusted by the family of the deceased with the responsibility of helping the loved ones to pass on.
I enjoyed its themes of respect, reconciliation, forgiveness, and finally, being a professional and serving with pride. With its well-meaning humour and touching drama sequences, this movie is definitely worth watching!
Overall rating: A+
Trailer:
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