A Tea Ceremony for the Departed

Rating: 8/10 (16 March 2013)

Departures (2008) is a fascinating mix of existential angst and Taoism. It is a celebration of life and death, of nature and civilization, of the complexity of beauty and the basic elements into which we all decompose.
Daigo Kobayashi (played wonderfully by Masahiro Motoki) is a Grade B cellist in an orchestra that fails. His life, his dreams are crushed, along with his finances since he had gone deeply into debt to buy a "professional grade" cello. Not sure how to organize his life, he returns to his home town. Looking for work, he stumbles into a job as a professional who prepares bodies for cremation. Like the work done by the Untouchables of India, this is a profession abhorred by all who knew him as a child and an aspiring musician. Yet, he finds a new love of life, an appreciation for the beauty of the world about him. He also realizes that the ceremonial aspect of his work allows those who "remain behind" to resolve unspoken conflicts (afterall, this is Japan) between themselves and between themselves and the deceased. In rare cases, he even helps assuage the loss and bring happiness to those who knew the departed and can share their joy-filled memories with each other.
It is a charming movie, full of reverence for life and a commentary on how much we take each other and the world for granted, until it is too late.
Daigo's wife (played by Mika Kobayashi) ultimately affirms his profession. Although she says little, her facial expressions shout volumes. One is easily reminded of her role as the rebellious teenager Yumi Yoshimido in Wasabi (2001), with Jean Reno, another great movie that celebrates love and life, though a la John Wayne and Dirty Harry. Although Yumi was a much more talkative role, as Mika Koayashi the same face provides excellent and moving dialog, all the more interesting for its silence.
Tsutou Yamazaki plays Ikeui Sasaki, Daigo's mentor, who sees instantly in the musician the sweetness and emotion needed to bring beauty and feeling the job of Nokanshi, the funeral professional who engages in a highly stylized ceremony before the family and friends of the deceased as the body is prepared. Ikeui performs his Nokanshi role with a beauty that is inspiring.
The movie is long at 130 minutes, but never boring. If you have lost someone close to you, if you have stood on a mountain and smelled the aroma of trees and flowers and watched the clouds dance across the sky, if you have marveled that we are all literally star stuff, you will find this quiet mediation on life and the joy of living worth every moment of your time. Then go tell your children, your spouse, your significant other and your friends, how much you love and appreciate them. Then throw a party for no reason at all to celebrate the blessing of being a sentient being on the third planet circling an ordinary star in the outer third of a galaxy not really unusual or difference from millions of other galaxies in the universe. For, in the end, about 4-5 billion years hence, we and all that is of our planet will be cremated, just like the departed of the movie.