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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready....
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Since 1996 |
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready....
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Departures Stars: Masahiro Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki and Ryoko Hirosue Director: Yojiro Takita Scriptwriter: Kundo Koyama Composer: Joe Hisaishi Cinematography: Takeshi Hamada Tokyo Broadcasting System, Sedic Production No rating but could be PG 13 Japanese language with subtitles Running Length: 130 minutes 2009 Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language Film There are occupations and then there are occupations. There are musicians who play in orchestras and who also play at funerals. There are morticians who take care of the dead and who may have music as a hobby. Rare, indeed, is there a musician who becomes an undertaker and this is the story in Departures that won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The thoughtful script by Kundo Koyama is beautifully interpreted by the actors, Masahiro Motoki and Tsutomu Yamazaki as an apprentice undertaker and his boss, who owns the business. Ryoko Hirosue is Masahiro’s wife, who strongly disapproves of his new occupation. The story is set against a small town in Japan and adapted from Shinmon Aoki’s real life story, “Coffinman.” Such a person is the one who prepares the deceased for burial while the family looks on and grieves. A sort of middleman in the business. Departures opens with an orchestra concert and afterward, the group is told that the orchestra is being disbanded. This is bad news for Daigo (Motoki) who plays the cello. Eventually, he and his wife travel to another city for a new job he has accepted. The “willing to travel” indicated to Daigo that this was a travel agent’s job, but, instead, it is apprentice to a firm that performs encoffinments, or preparing the deceased for placing in the coffin. It requires knowledge of etiquette (no skin is allowed to show), manners, and skill in make-up. Some bodies come from hospitals and others are victims of crimes and then you have to have a strong stomach. Humor is provided by a video of Daigo as the “corpse” as the Boss does a lecture for students. Daigo keeps his lucrative job a secret from his wife, but eventually, you know what happens, and she leaves. Daigo, however, has an affinity for this position and likes what he does. It serves a purpose, a sort of fulfillment and the Boss, a scene-stealing Yamazaki, knows just how to handle him. There are side stories, too, including Daigo’s search for a long-lost father, Daigo’s cello and the owner of a bath house in the town. Photography is wonderfully done by Takeshi Hamada and so is the soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi that combines classical music with contemporary. The story moves slowly at times, but then you are mesmerized when the gentle-handed Daigo goes to work with a weeping family as his audience. Whoever is playing the corpse each time deserves positive comment, too. Talk about pressure. Departures brings the common theme of death and burial to the screen, and then shows what goes on behind the scenes in another society. A body just isn’t placed into a coffin, there are things that go on beforehand. The actors melt into their roles. This is a first time movie script for Kundo Koyama, and he and director Yojiro Takita won the gold. Copyright 2009 Marie Asner
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