Departures/Arrivals: 'The gift of last memories'

Rating: 10/10 (28 February 2010)

DEPARTURES (aka OKURIBITO) is an experience film, one of those graceful creations of cinema that finds the balance between comedy and drama, sensitive and sentimental, and is embellished by a wondrous musical score and glowing cinematography. Running time is in excess of two hours, but likely most viewers would elect to rewind and watch it again, so touching and vital is this story.
Daigo Kobayashi (the enormously gifted Masahiro Motoki) was raised by his mother when his father for some reason left his family when Daigo was only six years old: his last memory of his father is a quiet scene by the ocean when the child and the father exchange found rocks. Daigo was encouraged by his parents to learn to play the cello so that he could amount to something special as a man. Things happen: Daigo goes off to study cello, his mother dies and he doesn't attend the funeral, he marries Mike (Ryoko Hirosue), and spends all their money on a prime cello to gain admission to the major orchestra in the city. The orchestra plays to near empty houses and is finally disbanded. Daigo is without an income, sells his prize cello, and with Mika's blessing, returns to his hometown to live in the home of his childhood. He answers an ad for work, an ad that uses the word 'Departures' making Daigo think this is a travel agency. When Daigo 'interviews' with the owner (Tsutomu Yamazaki) he discovers that the job in one called 'encoffinment' (a Japanese ceremonial procedure of preparing, dressing & praying for the corpse before putting them in the coffin). At first repulsed by the job, Daigo gradually discovers the importance of paying final respects to the dead and preparing them for the life ahead, and his experiences with the new found beauty of encoffinment ties in with memories of his family, recalls his estrangement from his father, and reunites him with old dear friends who run a bath house, etc. Mika is spared the truth about her husband's new job, and when she discovers the truth, Mika leaves Daigo who by now is enchanted with his position.
Many experiences follow as Daigo encoffins all manner of people: there are some ugly scenes and some very humorous scenes depicting the variety of 'calls' Daigo gets. How the story winds down is not necessarily difficult to discern, but the manner in which the film ends is a work of great simplicity and beauty. Daigo's dealing with departures allows him to find his own arrivals.
Writer Kundo Takita and director Yôjirô Takita well deserve all the awards lavished on this perfect little film. But much of the success of this story about another way to view death is the astonishingly multifaceted performance by Masahiro Motoki, a beautiful man and an equally beautiful actor. This is a film to watch repeatedly and definitely one to add to the personal library of DVDs.
Grady Harp