It is one of those Arty movies that I picked up (DVD) while waiting to go in to watch another film in the cinema (Bodyguard, Hindi). Boy! I am sure watching more movies than I should. Actually, I was only a bodyguard to my daughter to watch the film 'Bodyguard' (starring Salman Khan with his senseless ala Matrix kind of unimaginable stunts only to be bettered by Vijaykanth!) which is not worth mentioning in this posting!I have departed from my narration of Departures, a full-length Japanese movie, subtitled in English, about the departed. Departed? Departures? Confused? That is how our hero, Kobayashi, got entangled in this mess in the first place. Kobayashi, a cellist in a symphony orchestra, returns to his hometown when the orchestra winds down due to bad business.
A good movie to watch to appreciate the sheer pleasing picturesque view of the interior colder parts of Japan. And I have definitely fallen in love with the finesse and the mild-mannered natured trait of the Japanese culture. I cannot imagine such a civilization went on a rampage and terrorized the Chinese and the South-East Asian nations.
I digress...
I have departed from my narration of Departures, a full-length Japanese movie, subtitled in English, about the departed. Departed? Departures? Confused? That is how our hero, Kobayashi, got entangled in this mess in the first place. Kobayashi, a cellist in a symphony orchestra, returns to his hometown when the orchestra winds down the business. He ends up in a job which he thought has something to do with the tourist industry - helping in departures, little knowing that it is helping the departed- dressing up the dead for the undertakers. He found the job an offer too lucrative to resist and decided to keep mum about the nature of his job from his wife.
Along the way, we are told of the various trials and tribulations of his work - of how people look down on his vocation and how they accuse him and his boss of living of the dead! Some of the awkward moments in his work include an instant when he discovers that a lady corpse is a cross-dresser! At another function, a family feud arises amongst the grieving members accusing each other as being the cause of the demise of the deceased. Kobayashi soon discovers how in the course of his work he helps the grieved in bereavement. Along the way, his wife discovers his fraudulent activity and walks out on him. After a little soul searching, Kobayashi finds solace in himself and his wife returns to tell him about her pregnancy and stays back.The film also discusses other subplots -His boss' issue with his wife's death; his colleague's pathetic life and Kobayashi's unresolved anger with his father's walking out on his and his mother's life in his early childhood, eloping with a waitress.
There was a poignant moment when the boss compares the dead body to the carcass of meat that he was eating. If the meat were alive, it would be no use to us! Another plus point was the directors' take of the Kobayashis' intimate moments. It is tastefully taken with just enough exposure without showing too much flesh!
The father's character appears at the end of the movie when the news arrives that he is dead as an orphan. He and his wife come to see how badly the funeral parlours treats the dead. He takes over the care of his father's remain and finds peace with his father's misdeed. His wife appreciates his work as a professional and everybody is happy!
This movie grabbed the 2009 Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film category.
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