Fantastic!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's very surprising to see a movie about the taboo practice of encoffinment, become so university praise by critics. You would think, this movie would, fall under the radar of American & Japanese society, because of the dark subject matter; however, this movie became one of the highest-grossing domestic Japanese films of that year. It was even, a bigger hit international abroad; winning many awards from critics like the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film of 2009. However, for me, I saw it as a one-time watch. A good movie worth checking out, but not worth revisiting, time after time, again. Loosely based on 'Coffinman', a memoir by Shinmon Aoki, and originally titled "Okuribito" means "the sending away"; Departures follows the story of a young man, Kobayashi Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) who returns to his hometown after a failed career as a cellist and stumbles across work as a nōkanshi—a traditional Japanese ritual mortician. He is subjected to prejudice from those around him, including from his family and friends, because of strong social taboos against people who deal with death. Eventually he must try to earn their respect and learns the importance of interpersonal connections through the beauty and dignity of his work. Can Kobayashi Daigo achieve that or will he be disconnect from his family & friends for the rest of his life? Watch the movie to find out, if you want to! Without spoiling the movie, too much, I have to say, this movie by director Takita Yojiro was very informative to how Japanese culture prepare their dead for the afterlife. This is pretty much, the main appeal of the film for me. To see, what steps, it takes for them to prepare their dead is very interesting; and I'm not known for having a morbid curiosity for such things. You really do learn, a lot about Japanese culture, by watching this. However, besides those, the movie doesn't have much, going for itself. Yes, the classical cello music by composer Joe Hisaishi was indeed beautiful to hear and some of the film is very well-shot, but as a main stream appeal; it doesn't really have some. It's morbid curiosity at its best. I really don't know, if American audiences would revisited this film, time after time, again like me. After all, the film moves in a somewhat slow, heavy-handed, and predictable pace. In my opinion, the conventional simple story is a little too-stretch out. The result of this, cause the movie to falls into a pit full of pointless filler scenes in the second act. Even, the third act, break up is very clichés. You can see it, coming from a mile away. However, most of the changes from the novel, in the climax for the film, was well-written and perform. I love the ending with the message stone. It was somewhat redeeming and heart-warming. As much, as it's sounding like, I didn't like the movie, I honestly did love it. The actors in the film are all, well-played. One thing, I'm pretty glad, the movie has, is English subtitles then English dubbing, because I would hate to see the movie suffer from bad lip sync. The subtitles really help a lot, because some of these rituals can seem somewhat confusing. After all, there are not many people that eat live squids, go to bath houses and drink Japanese tea in rituals ceremony, here in the States. It was nice to try to understand, such practices. I also kinda glad, the movie had some lighten moments. A good example is when Kobayashi and his boss, Sasaki (Tsutomu Yamazaki) are cleaning a body that they thought was a woman, but they find out, it's a man. However, one thing, worth noticing, about Japanese humor is how that joke and many after that, doesn't have that much of a punch-line, because the film tries too hard to be respectful. I think, this film would work, better, if they allow more leeway in how they were able to portray the dead. Maybe there was a little too much calming, hypnotic grace with this PG-13 film. It mask people's fears, too much that humor and drama can't really shine through. I think this is why, the movie kinda suffers, when it comes to rewatch value. Maybe, it could had work better, as an R-Rated film, but that's just a maybe. Anyways; Overall: Departures is alright movie. Somewhat overpraise, but still a great film worth checking out. After all, it's nice to see films like this, reverse prejudice against a once taboo subject.

... and i have seen an uncountable number of them! Actually it had been a long time before such a piece of Art film came on my screen. Right then, out of the sudden, i heard the announcement on our national TV stations that they were going to play "departures", a film which was the Oscar winner for best non English speaking film of that year! The fact that it was Japanese and the synopsis of its script was nothing i was really enthusiastic about, and i would have probably missed it if i didn't read the reviews which were all very strongly recommending it. So, finally i found myself, that Sunday evening watching "departures", and a miracle happened! the -at the beginning macabre- script, became gradually more and more touching, then sad and finally heartbreaking, humanistic and tender so much, that it finally got me totally upside down out of emotion. Till that moment I had never come across anything like this! How could it be possible that something which could - at first sight- be considered "macabre" end up so heartbreaking? Only a real highly humanistic masterpiece could ever make it possible. And everything in this film is just a masterpiece of its own: Direction, photograph, script, acting and last but not least, its heavenly music which just frees your soul and lose your eyes to shed freely your tears! This music...Oh! there is something magic about it i tell you! That kind of music God allows from time to time to reach the earth as a present from heaven and probably as a reward for something good the humans may have done. In my case,Mr Hisaishi,the composer, through his divine music for this divine film, made me a Cello fan, and I do need to thank him for giving me this amazing feeling! If you haven't seen "Departures" yet, please try to do it soon as possible. It will fill your heart and your spirit with the finest kindness you have ever experienced coming out of a movie screen. It may make you feel emotionally shocked but it will also make you a better person for sure!

A man who is a cellist belonging to a musical group returns to his home town, because the group breaks up. One day he finds a job advertisement and he likes it. However this job is actually an undertaker, who treats a body and encoffins him. He is torn between cellist and undertaker.This film can change an image toward an undertaker. It shows their job as a beautiful and great thing. I feel kind of admirable to them.Treating a death means at the same time thinking about a life. Undertakers put on a lip stick on the lip casting their mind to the past of the body, that is, the time when he or she was alive. The film told me such a thing. Once dealing with bodies was a work for people under discrimination. They were called Eta Hinin, which means dirty and not human. However embalming is now essential work and we should consider them as great workers, I think.

An American client, knowledgeable about Eastern ways, highly recommended Departures to me. It was nominated for an academy award for best foreign film, he told me. I read about the plot on IMDb, saw that it was about a Japanese man named Daigo who prepares dead people for funerals, and was immediately turned off by the idea seeing it. I told this to the client, and he said "The East doesn't think of death that way. No preconceptions allowed! It is not a death movie, it is a life movie".Having been gently but firmly rebuked, I returned to IMDb and read several positive reviews of the film. This time my impression was much different. I came to view this film with respect. It no longer appeared to be simply a "morbid" film, but a thoughtfully-made one, and representative of Japanese filmmakers' reputation for sensitive storytelling. With renewed interest in seeing the film, I told my client that I'd see it when I have time. I started watching it three weeks later.Not only did I watch it, but I managed to persuade my wife to watch it with me. Initially, she was repulsed by the sight of dead people being prepared for burial or cremation, and refused to continue watching the film. However, she overcame her disgust when I starting watching the film myself from where we had left off, a week later, and when she heard the beautiful music of the film's soundtrack. We saw the rest of the film together, and we both liked it. My wife was charmed by the sight of Daigo playing the cello, especially when he played on the hilltop. He was an orchestra of one. Daigo had a job playing the cello in an orchestra, but was forced to give that up when the orchestra was disbanded. He answered a help wanted ad, thinking he was applying for a job as a travel agent. Instead, he was hired to be a ritual mortician, a job which he at first detested and which made him sick. The pay was very good, though.The artistry of this film must be seen to be believed. Here are a few examples: there's a scene in which Daigo applies lipstick to the lips of a deceased wife and mother during the "en-coffining" ceremony: her husband and daughter express their heartfelt thanks to him after the ceremony for making their beloved wife and mother, respectively, appear more beautiful even in death. Another example: an old man prepares to cremate a deceased bathhouse owner, an important member of the community, while explaining his role as a gatekeeper to the next world to Daigo's former orchestral comrade. The comrade had reproached Daigo in front of the comrade's wife and child for doing such undignified work, and can now see the value of Daigo's work. The final scene is the final example and the ultimate climax. It was in that last scene that I most saw the resemblance to one of the best Ozu films a Dutch reviewer on IMDb mentioned in his review, even though I haven't seen an Ozu film. The scene is poignant; it is beyond astonishing, it is beyond extraordinary. It is magical.Throughout the film, the music is as moving as it is beautiful. It serves to reinforce the film's message that en-coffining is an honorable profession, one that helps the loved ones of those left behind find solace, even joy, despite the loss of their dearly departed family members and friends. The acting is superb in the film. I could feel the sincerity of the characters as I watched them go about their lives. Daigo, Mika, and Sasaki, especially, conveyed genuine feeling with their expressions and actions. As the actor who plays Daigo, Masahiro Motoki, had an enormous interest in the subject of the film – in fact he wrote a book on the relationship between life and death – this added considerably to the credibility of the film and his role in it.What is most significant to me about this film is the way it shows how one's choice of profession affects one's life in important ways. This film is about death, but it's even more about life and the effect that death has upon the lives of those who make it a profession, as well as those they care about. Moreover, there is beauty, even in death.Japanese culture is depicted in a realistic way. As an example, when my stepdaughter, who spent time in Japan, came to visit us, I told her about Departures, and she told us about the bathhouses in Japan. The bathhouse in Departures matched her description. The Japanese values of respect for one's elders, tradition and nature are much in evidence in this movie. The film accurately portrays the stigma involving death in Japan: that death in Japanese culture is thought to be a source of impurity and that those who work closely with the deceased, such as morticians, are considered unclean. It is this stigma which Daigo strives to overcome in his new career. I urge you to see Departures. Although it doesn't explore the religious side of the Japanese funeral ritual, it is nevertheless an artistic and reasonably authentic portrayal of its place in Japanese society. It's very likely that you will enjoy Departures, or at least some aspect of it, and that you'll find much meaning in it. The care with which this film was made will be become apparent to you as you watch it. It is truly an antidote for the crassness of the modern Hollywood film tradition, with its puffery and special effects mania. It is an antidote, for that matter, for the materialistic culture that we cling to so desperately in the United States.