FILM CHALLENGE: 174) Departures

174) Departures

Director: Yojiro Takita

Year: 2008

Plot Summary: Daigo Kobayashi is a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and now finds himself without a job. Daigo decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled "Departures" thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer," a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life.

This happens every year.

As another Oscar ceremony comes and goes, I constantly find myself enraged over the Academy's decision for the Best Foreign Film award. In 2007, I felt the fact that Pan's Labyrinth was overlooked by some anonymous German flick was criminal. Last year, moreover, I distinctly remember shouting "What?" at the TV in the early hours of the morning as A Prophet and The White Ribbon were both shunned for some Argentinian thriller. The same thing also happened in 2008 when Waltz With Bashir lost to a Japanese film no-one had heard of called Departures.

But I also find myself having to admit my mistake every year too. That 'anonymous German flick' was The Lives Of Others and is now in my top 15 movies of all time, the Argentinian thriller, The Secret In Their Eyes remains one of the best films of 2009 and, tonight, I finally saw first hand why Waltz With Bashir lost out to Departures.

Yojiro Takita's drama drops us into the life of Daigo Kobayashi and his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living as he works at an encoffiner in his old home town.

The film could very easily be criticised for being overly melodramatic, emotionally manipulative and sentimental. There is, after all, a cringe-worthy montage scene thrown in the middle that involves our main character, Daigo, playing his cello on a lonely mountainside as well as a terribly cliched finale that feels so forced you'll struggle not to role your eyes. However, Departures somehow manages to triumph over the schmaltzy tone because it is such an affecting piece of work. While it doesn't cross into uncharted territory or do anything particularly unique, it is as touching, heartfelt and profound a drama as you'll find.

Drawing parallels with HBO's incredible TV drama Six Feet Under, Departures boldly brings the themes of loss and death to the surface here, examining what life actually means after its run its course, the effect it can have on a person, and how it's an inevitable thing that all of us will at some point have to face. The many different ways that the families and characters deal with death as Daigo works as an 'encoffiner' is often moving and pulls at your heart-strings.

It's also beautifully made in a simple yet effective fashion. The way it captures the beauty of both the urban jungle of Tokyo and Daigo's home town in the quiet, isolated countryside is excellent and the director never overshadows the narrative with style.

A film that speaks to the soul, Departures is a gentle and conventional affair that becomes a tear-inducing drama thanks to its profound themes and affecting study of life, death and everything in between.

4/5

By Daniel Sarath with No comments