caring for the death, caring for the living

Rating: 8/10 (8 August 2009)

The Japanese entry that received the Oscar for the best foreign movie deals with a theme that is not unique in the Japanese cinema - the death as a continuation of life, the caring and respect one owes to the dead which helps the living to continue with their own lives. It does it in a manner that is both emotional and serene, and the result is a film that will touch a cord for almost everybody who watches it.
The hero is a musician, and this fact plays a role in the film, as it gives a pretext for wonderful music to be inserted and create the appropriate atmosphere or counterpoint in certain moments. He has to quit his profession when the orchestra he was playing in is disbanded and returns to his home city together with his beautiful and seemingly almost smiling wife. By accident - he is misreading a newspaper add - he is hired by an agency that cares for the bodies of the dead before cremation, a work so low class that he cannot even tell his wife about it. It's well paid however and he takes it, and then he is confronted with the reality of the 'departures' - his employer is an artist in the profession of making the final moments of quitting this world honorable for the dead, but especially kind and memorable for the remaining family. And we will all become convinced by the end of the film that this is how it should be.
The film certainly belongs to the category of melodrama, but then it is good quality one. Most cinema viewers are not ashamed of dropping a tear when something moves them in the movie and appreciate directors, actors and story writers who are capable to induce such emotions. It tells also a lot to the non-Japanese viewers about conflicts between tradition and new pace of life, and about family relations and the role of the wife in the modern Japanese family. I am not familiar enough with the social and cultural details of Japan to make a judgment to what extent they are authentic, but they are clearly articulated and in a delicate manner. The film is maybe 10 or 20 minutes longer than it should be, but there are no long intervals when it becomes boring, so its length is supportable. It is wonderfully acted and viewers will probably remember for a long while the principal hero played by Masahiro Motoki, the older dead caretaker played by Tsutomu Yamazaki, and the wife Mika, played by the wonderful Ryoko Hirosue. Cinematography is simple and aesthetic, although the scenes of the hero playing music in the nature seem artificial and the filming of the mountain in the background is too many times repeated and apparently unjustified. Over all it is a good and moving film. Maybe it was not the best foreign film of the year, but it was quite a simple and obvious choice for the jury of the Academy.