Movie: Departures

Here it comes, folks, the best film of 2008, albeit in the second week of August 2009. It’s “Departures,” which certainly would have headed last year’s Top 10 list from yours truly, that is, if anyone but eligible Academy Award-types actually had seen it. Of course, director Yojiro Takita’s often lovely, lyrical film stunningly beat out heavy favorite “Waltz With Bashir” for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for 2008, and now everyone can finally understand why voters really got it right this time, since it is finally in selected theaters across the U. S.

In case, you didn't gather, I love this movie – simply love it, love it, love it – which might suggest something deep and sinister about me since it deftly chronicles how a cellist becomes a dresser of the dead.

When a Tokyo symphony orchestra folds for lack of funding, Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) returns to his small hometown, still owing 18 million yen on his melancholy instrument and obviously needing a job.

Masahiro Motoki and Ryoko Hirosue star in "Departures."

With his cute, always optimistic wife Mika (Ryoko Hirosue) in tow, Daigo answers an enticing employment listing, thinking it may take him into the travel/tourism business. Instead, the advertised “departures” refer to the Japanese custom of ceremoniously cleansing and wrapping lifeless bodies to prepare them for cremation – all in view of mourning friends and family members.

The subtitled film begins with a flash-ahead to a bittersweet remembrance of how his kindly, business-minded boss, the ever-patient Mr. Sasaki (Tsutomu Yamazaki), shows off the art of “encoffinment” for his apprentice and the grieving relatives of a suicide victim. Making the sequence even more memorable is a twist that reoccurs about 80 minutes later.

Cleansing the dead in "Departures."

Earlier encounters with some not-so dearly departed may be troubling to Daigo, who learns his trade the hard way, but they do give the masterful Takita and screenwriter Kundo Koyama ample opportunity to entertain and even overwhelm audiences with such an original story idea. Eventually, Daigo becomes as brilliantly adept at this new form of creative expression as he was as a musician. Alas, societal pressures force him to keep his talents secret from everyone, including wife Mika, because of the stigma attached to any rituals involving the dead.

The confused bride stands firmly by her husband’s side, though, during a profoundly moving moment that allows Daigo to re-connect with his long-estranged father. It’s one of a few brilliant instances in which “Departures” reaffirms our understanding that humanity does not necessarily end with life as we too routinely know it.

Rated: PG-13
Stars: Masahiro Motoki, Ryoko Hirosue, Tsutomu Yamazaki
Director: Yojiro Takita

Studio/Official Site: http://www.departures-themovie.com/

[John M. Urbancich has been reviewing movies and writing film features and celebrity profiles at Cleveland's Sun Newspapers for 25 years. As a longtime member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, his work has been appearing on the Sun News website for more than a decade. John also regularly updates his own site at www.JMuvies.com ]