Departures
I think I have been dreaming about this film, but now I am speechless. (Okay, technically this is not true. What I actually dreamed was that my whole family was taken hostage on a ship and the dream ended with how we sabotaged the crew on the ship and got away. I woke up in the moment when we all jumped into water.)
I noticed recently how Japan has not won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film for quite a long time, despite many interesting entries over the years. While there were Japanese films nominated all the time, there is a huge jump from the 50s until the year of 2008, when “Departures” finally made it. Is this film really the best Japanese film in the last 50 years? Hardly. Neither is “Nowhere in Africa” compared to other German films, which I have not seen but imagine to be dreadful. In terms of Oscar, “Departures” can perhaps be compared to “The Live of Others” – I liked both!
This is the type of movie that has something new for you in storage even when you know what the premise is (failed cellist becomes encoffiner). A story like this has not been told before, and certainly not this way – yet at the same time it feels realistic and close to our own lives. Everybody dies and everybody has some kind of job (even your lack of job can be a job description, in some sense at least), and this film brings these two important aspects of life together.
With a lovely portrayal of Japanese countryside, I thought that it was the perfect environment for the main character to find his true roots. The end came off a little bit cheesy, but so did “The Live of Others”, I suppose. Aside from the fact that the wife’s character annoyed me heavily during most of the film (she is just too cheerful!), the film was a lovely display of humanity, especially in those short scenes at the end, when Daigo has finally become comfortable with his job. Personally I think being an encoffiner is a wonderfully dignified line of work, but I believe it is hard to put a topic like death onto screen, and by that I mean in a serious way, without going the tearjerking Hollywood route.
On an emotional level, I don’t think “Departures” hit me as hard as some other films I have seen recently, but in general, I found it to be a wonderful film, which strangely prompted this urge of wanting to peacefully live in Japan’s countryside. I have this imagination that these old-style wooden houses, simple bath houses and hilly roads would be a lovely existence.
I see you’re also hopping on the trend of cinematic dreams? :D
Even my mother recommended it to me once, I should finally watch it! Thanks for the nudge in the right direction.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Watch it! I thought it was absolutely wonderful.
AHAHAHA, the overly pathetic cello scenes on the wide open field are so “I am Japanese and I do like Classical music”-kitsch! :D We watched it in Japanese class and everybody made fun of those scenes all the time.
And I totally agree with you. It was a good movie (The best part for me were the burial scenes.), but the romance was quite stupid.
Hahaha oh dear. It does totally sound like the type of thing you would watch in Japanese class. XD Ultimately cheerful girl was not a major character in the story and the kitschness of this father-story was much worse. Then again, it fits the general setting of the story so I will not complain.
Also, I like classical music!
Ridiculous panning to cello music was ridiculous. And Hirosue Ryouko is the queen of plain, loving, cute Japanese women, she does this role everywhere. O.o And yeah, her actions and motivations really were borderline stupid… But the movie was so great anyway! I want to move to rural cath^H^H^H^H Japan now!
Hahaha, we should all move there… and seriously creep out local inhabitants by our sole existence, ah ha ha.
Guess I really don’t like plain, loving, cute women. XD (For a good reason!)