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Departures




Departures, 2008

Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) is a cellist whose orchestra is unceremoniously disbanded. Needing work, he responds to an ad about a job in "departures," only to discover that he has taken a position in a firm that provides body preparation services for bereaved families. Under the tutelage of his boss, Ikuei (Tsutomu Yamazaki), Daigo learns the rituals and people skills required in the unique line of work.

This was such a lovely film.

The very first scene, to be honest, had me a little worried at first. Preparing a body, Daigo is cleaning the young woman in front of her gathered loved ones when he discovers that she has male genitals. But instead of being some sort of transphobic, "ew a penis" joke, we see how Ikuei smoothly and respectfully finishes cleaning the body and then confers with the family about the final preparations of their child. What at first seems like a throwaway bit of wacky comedy actually comes back later in the film as part of a theme regarding the relationship between parents and children.

In fact, the brilliance of this film is that there are no throwaway moments. Even aspects of the film that seem to be there just for a quick laugh later find resonance. It's all connected in a way that is funny and devastating and beautiful.

Daigo doesn't start the film in any way as a hard-hearted person. One of the very first scenes involves him and his wife discovering that an octopus they bought for dinner is still alive and trying to release it into the wild. From the beginning he has empathy. But working with the dead and, by extension, the living, gives him an insight in to the passions and agonies of the people around him. The lessons he learns are mainly about the relationship between different generations--parents, children, grandchildren. He watches how different families cope with loss: anger, sorrow, gratitude. A touch that I loved in the film was the way that Daigo always looked at the photographs of the deceased people. The photos telling a lot about how their families choose to remember them. (I thought it was beyond powerful that the family from the opening scene chose a picture of their child as female presenting).

Underneath all of Daigo's experiences is the hurt he still feels about his father's abandonment of their family when he was a child. Daigo over and over witnesses moments of closure, and through his work he is able to work toward his own emotional peace.

I thought that the performances were all really solid, from the leads to the smaller roles of the grieving families.

And while this is a "your mileage may vary" element, I really love the sound the cello, and very much enjoyed the few sequences we got (including one very long segment) of Daigo playing the instrument.

Just all in all a really lovely movie. I took no issues with it and would highly recommend it.