A snob review. bread and water.

Rating: 1/10 (4 August 2009)

As I found out that this movie had been selected, among plenty of great Japanese movies, to win an academy award two things happened. 1. I couldn't stop watching this movie through what Americans may have felt. 2. A feeling of injustice build up since this movie had unreasonably been forwarded among so many great movies. I can even name-drop TV-series that are better.
A lot of people on here seems to know very little about Japan or Japanese movies (which is fine, that's not the problem). But how can the masses who have little cultural/cinematic experience set the norm? I've never been such a snob before but the reactions to the movie are so off-target. Questions on here as - Who is the Japanese Spielberg? - are an insult to Japanese movies as well as all American movies. I think most people on here like the movie because it is Japanese and they explain all the flaws with the same reasoning, because it is Japanese. Look at the job interview. It is trying to be funny but isn't. If it is trying to be realistic it is far from it. The adjective we have left, if not realistic or funny, is artificial. But I have to applaud how open-minded people have received the movie, people have really tried to understand the Japenese culture. But my review is rather a written notice on unjust because of the exaggeration: the voting, the words. It hurts to know that great movies are ignored.
The plot is very weak. He could find another job, so why does he act so disgusted by it. The plot is actually: a man not telling his wife what job he has. If he just told her, there wouldn't be a plot and that would be much better. Another one was the non-existing problem that in the movie it was considered a terrible job to do, catering the dead. This movie didn't need conflicts but there were many banal conflicts which were projected and an hour and a half long drag.
I wouldn't call the acting very bad but there were some catastrophically terrible reactions in there. When he finds out that the band has disbanded. Or what about the shaving accident. The whole sentō conversation scene was ridiculing people. Nobody thought that him taking the clothes off his wife was a very unusual reaction on his part and even stranger counter-reaction from Mika?
People are praising the music score. There is nothing special or good about it. There are greater compositions but people aren't even used to classical music in movies, which tells us what kind of audience likes this movie. Most movies have a better score.
The wife, as always in Japan with children and females, was laughing and energetic even at the worst places. It is sad that women and children are degraded to this manner and luckily it isn't as much the case in Japan as it is in Japanese movies.
Cinematography is very plain. I don't want to go into this, but this is like watching a Hollywood movie taking place Japan.
This movie is like bread and water, a delicious meal, especially for the hungry. But knowing that there are all kinds of flavors out there ruins the movie. All in all a very plain movie.
Post Scriptum: In the end my review will be voted as not useful which proves that mindless indulgence is in favor to listening to a person's commentary and try to explore and expand. People just want to see 10/10 reviews, they don't care about substance.
Other nominees for the award were to better movies: Entre les murs and waltz with Bashir. Both those movies are a lot stronger than Departures. It's a shame that when the academy finally caught a Japanese movie they caught the wrong one and too late.
It makes me happy to know that Yôjirô Takita other productions (as expected nothing worth notice) include: molester train man and serial rape-murderer.