Like watching a slow river and always discovering something new

Rating: 8/10 (7 March 2015)

"Okuribito" is a recent Academy award winner in the foreign language film category. It was a bit of an underdog against the Israeli entry, but finally took home the prize. Also, it was the huge winner (10 awards) at the Japanese film awards that year, won pretty much all categories, except Best Actress, where the actress who plays the wife was "only" nominated. And I can see why it received so high praise. It's a very deep film about the perception of a profession in a society entirely different from the one we live in. The central character, a professional cello player, loses his job and starts working at a company where he prepares recently deceased people for their last journey. Fittingly to his initial profession, this movie includes lots of beautiful classical music.
There also are many interesting references in here, for example the fact that his wife gets pregnant and new life is created while he (at his profession) says farewell to old life. But it's not really only about the central character. We also witness a change in his wife's mind. Initially, she seems to despise him because of his new profession, even possibly leave him, but when she sees with how much dignity he is occupied she knows that he found the right job finally. Her quote near the end that her husband works in this field and she is no longer embarrassed seals the deal.
In terms of the dead, there is everybody involved: mothers, sons, daughters and finally even the main character's father. So he has to act as a professional worker first before he mourns like a son. Actually, I expected his mentor to die near the end in a metaphorical attempt to display how he was his "real" father figure, especially with his colleague's comment about how he is getting older while she watched him sleeping, but I was wrong here. There's really nothing wrong with this film and I have to look deep to find something close to what I disliked. I thought the stainless vs rough stone metaphors did not work as much as I hoped they would, but they weren't bad either. It is very interesting to see how his new profession is perceived by general public in Japan. He even gets humiliated by one of the mourning families. (The different families with their own struggles and reactions and quirks were all very fascinating to watch.) I personally find it difficult to understand why, but I guess the explanation is a mix of tradition and mentality really hard to grasp if you are not living there are very familiar with the culture.
It is a fairly slow movie. For its entirety of over 2 hours we basically only watch him during his job (some strangely funny scenes involved too, all very subtle) and during his (struggling) family life. Nothing big really ever happens, but that would not have fit the film's mood and tone anyway. Interestingly enough, the lead actor in this film is already over 40, but seems a lot younger, maybe also due to his inexperience with his new task. The German word "Ausklang" is included in the title and if you understand this language you will see why it is the perfect choice both summarizing his old and new careers. Great film. highly recommended.