Okuribito (2008)

Director:

Yôjirô Takita

Writer:

Kundo Koyama (writer)

Release Date:

13 September 2008 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama | Music

Tagline:

The gift of last memories

Plot:

A newly unemployed cellist takes a job preparing the dead for funerals.

Plot Keywords:

Funeral | Cellist | Death | Orchestra | Hometown

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 31 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Masahiro Motoki	...	Daigo Kobayashi
Tsutomu Yamazaki	...	Ikuei Sasaki
Ryoko Hirosue	...	Mika Kobayashi
Kazuko Yoshiyuki	...	Tsuyako Yamashita
Kimiko Yo	...	Yuriko Kamimura
Takashi Sasano	...	Shokichi Hirata
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mitsuyo Hoshino
Tarô Ishida
Hiroyuki Kishi
Yukimi Koyanagi
Tôru Minegishi
Sanae Miyata
Ryôsuke Ohtani
Tatsuhito Okuda
Genjitsu Shu
Tetta Sugimoto
Tarô Suwa
Yukiko Tachibana
Takao Toji
Tatsuo Yamada

Also Known As:

Departures (International: English title) (UK) (USA)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for thematic material.

Runtime:

130 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Singapore:PG | Netherlands:AL | New Zealand:M | USA:PG-13 (certificate #45351) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:G (British Columbia) | Taiwan:PG-12 | UK:12A | Australia:M | Germany:o.Al. (f)

Filming Locations:

Sakata, Yamagata, Japan

Company:

Amuse Soft Entertainment

Trivia:

The Japanese title "Okuribito" means "the sending [away/off] people" (as in: people who send) - but this word is not normally used in Japanese.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Jeopardy!: (#26.35)" (2009)

Grandeur and noblesse, when death is seen as a prolongation of life

The human dimension of this film touched me. Some of these things touched me to tears. I list a few of them.

1. The job of the professionals who prepares the dead for their last contact with the family (wake) and their passage to eternity (cremation). In the film, the characters who perform this job, teach the spectator a true ritual of respect and affection with the dead. "Respect and affection with the dead": feelings that the modern life tries to banish from its practices. In the modern world, the dead are inconvenient and dispatched quickly in funerals where the majority of those who are present, entertain themselves with parallel talks, instead of focusing on the reason why they are there.

2. The nobility and grandeur of this job that, in the film, is not associated with any religion, and is directly associated with dealing with human beings. This nobility and grandeur reflects also on to the dead, in the sense that it reminds us that the dead deserve our respect and affection, because a new stage of our relationship with them is starting.

3.The way Daigo grows, as he learns this job, and overcomes (i)the social stigma that society imposes upon the contact with the dead and, also, the people who have contact with the dead, as well as (ii) his personal repulsion with repulsive material aspects of death (odors, rot, etc.)

4. The way Daigo grows, as he incorporates the nobility and grandeur of the job he was forced to do because of the circumstances (he was jobless because the orchestra where he played cello was dismissed). And, when his wife discovers in what consists his job, and tries to force him to quit, he has grown so much that he chooses to keep the job instead to yield to his wife menaces.

5. The way Daigo grows and which leads him back to play the cello and celebrate life more than ever, playing outdoors and playing at home as he used to do when he was a boy.

6. The way Daigo wife grows when she has the opportunity to look close to the job of her husband, and begins to admire him and love him more. Wife who have the opportunity to convince Daigo to take care of his dead father, when Daigo runs away when he gets aware of his father death. Wife, who, when the opportunity showed up, says with pride to the individuals of the funeral, that were almost doing a dirty job with the deceased Daigo father, "my husband will take care of him, he is a professional"

7. The way Daigo grows when he encounter again the love for his father and forgive him for having abandoned the family, while he prepares his old man for the burial.

8. How death can be seen as part of life process, when it causes some people to become aware of how much love they missed, and how much they have been loved without being aware of it.

All this happens because Daigo goes back to his hometown, a small town. That is, the return to his origins helps to renew the ties with the traditions and helps the character to put himself together again.

I'm omitting many precious details that appear throughout the film. These details must be seen personally, because the film was made with great sensitivity and expertise, and deserves to be seen.

Roland.