Departures rightly deserves the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In recent memory, I cannot recall a film that so adeptly portrays the dignity due to the dead and the respect due to the living. Departures tells the story of a young man, Daigo (superbly acted by Masahiro Motoki who conveys tomes with his face alone), who gives up his dream of playing the cello professionally and finds true artistry, and humanity, working as a Nokanshi – one who prepares bodies for burial.
Striking an appropriate harmony between humor and honor, the story infuses death (and life) with a meaning and significance often missing in Western films. Moreover, we find ourselves engrossed in this story not simply because it is so different from our own, but because in it we inherently recognize that here too is our story. We all are certainly more than mere mortals; yet, death shall come. Departures helps us find peace with our mortality and get about the business of living.
Along with its compelling story, this film has an amazing musical score by the John Williams of the east, Joe Hisaishi (who also composed the music for Spirited Away). The cello theme throughout strikes a beautiful accord with the movements of the protagonist on screen. In addition to the stellar soundtrack, the lensing is phenomenal especially during the burial preparation scenes (of course, it doesn’t hurt that the ceremony itself is beautiful). I admire the director’s choice of shooting most of the action in homely spaces because, as we find, the beauty of death is that it’s not separate from normal life but another natural part of that reality.
My only gripe with the film, and it’s a minor one, is the decision to shoot Diago playing the cello out in middle of nature . . . while it makes for great DVD cover art, it seemed out of place. Of course, the fact that he is playing on a narrow raised plain might represent that he, through his art (be that music or Nokanshi), is ushering the dead from one land to the next. Still, I think the symbolism too far afield from the story at hand.
If you have a propensity to avoid foreign films due to subtitles, or because they are so, um, foreign, I implore you not to miss Departures. Rare cinematic gems like this come along so infrequently. I guarantee you that even at 130 minutes, you will watch this film to the very end and you will be richer for having done so.
