Departures (2008) Okuribito (original title)

Director:

Yôjirô Takita

Writer:

Kundô 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:

Cellist | Death | Orchestra | Funeral | Cello

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 33 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Masahiro Motoki	...	Daigo Kobayashi
Tsutomu Yamazaki	...	Ikuei Sasaki
Ryôko Hirosue	...	Mika Kobayashi
Kazuko Yoshiyuki	...	Tsuyako Yamashita
Kimiko Yo	...	Yuriko Uemura
Takashi Sasano	...	Shokichi Hirata
Tetta Sugimoto	...	Yamashita
Tôru Minegishi	...	Yoshiki Kobayashi
Tatsuo Yamada	...	Togashi
Yukari Tachibana
Tarô Ishida	...	Sonezaki
Sanae Miyata	...	Naomi Togashi
Ryôsuke Ôtani	...	Tomeo's father
Mitsuyo Hoshino	...	Kazuko Kobayashi
Tatsuhito Okuda
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Akemi Fuji
Shinji Hiwatashi
Hiroyuki Kishi
Yukimi Koyanagi
Genjitsu Shu
Tarô Suwa
Ryôichi Suzuki
Yukiko Tachibana
Takao Toji
Atsushi Yamanaka
Miki Hayashida	...	Okuyamakenomusume (uncredited)

Directed by
Yôjirô Takita

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Kundô Koyama		writer

Produced by
Yasuhiro Mase	....	executive producer
Toshiaki Nakazawa	....	producer
Ichirô Nobukuni	....	producer
Toshihisa Watai	....	producer

Original Music by
Joe Hisaishi

Cinematography by
Takeshi Hamada

Film Editing by
Akimasa Kawashima

Casting by
Takefumi Yoshikawa

Production Design by
Fumio Ogawa

Makeup Department
Etsuko Egawa	....	special makeup effects artist
Iaso Tsuge	....	beauty director

Sound Department
Osamu Onodera	....	sound editor
Satoshi Ozaki	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Hitoshi Takaya	....	gaffer

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Katsuhiko Kitamura	....	costume supervisor

Editorial Department
Yoshiko Fumoto	....	first assistant editor

Music Department
Hiroyuki Akita	....	music engineer
Hiroyuki Akita	....	music mixer
Nobuo Furukawa	....	musician: cello
Joe Hisaishi	....	conductor
Joe Hisaishi	....	music arranger
Joe Hisaishi	....	music producer
Joe Hisaishi	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Adam D. Wright	....	distribution executive (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Amuse Soft Entertainment
• Asahi Shimbunsha
• Dentsu
• Departures Film Partners
• Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS)
• Sedic
• Shochiku Company
• Shogakukan
• TBS Radio & Communications (as TBS Radio)
• Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS)

Distributors

• Regent Releasing (2009) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Shochiku Company (2008) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Studio S Entertainment (2010) (Sweden) (theatrical) (D-Cinema)
• Wild Bunch Benelux (2009) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• A-Film Home Entertainment (2009) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Alfa Films (2010) (Argentina) (all media)
• Arrow Films (2010) (UK) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• CN Entertainment (2009) (Hong Kong) (DVD)
• E1 Entertainment (2009) (Canada) (DVD)
• E1 Entertainment (2010) (USA) (DVD)
• Emperor Motion Pictures (2009) (Hong Kong) (all media)
• Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore (2010) (Italy) (DVD)
• Golden Screen Cinemas (2008) (Malaysia) (all media)
• Golden Village Entertainment (2008) (Singapore) (all media)
• KD Media (2008) (South Korea) (all media)
• KOOL Filmdistribution (2009) (Germany) (all media)
• Lark Films Distribution (2009) (Hong Kong) (all media)
• Madman Entertainment (2008) (Australia) (all media)
• Madman Entertainment (2009) (New Zealand) (all media)
• Metropolitan Filmexport (2009) (France) (all media)
• Paris Filmes (2009) (Brazil) (all media)
• Regent Releasing (2009) (Canada) (all media)
• Studio S (2010) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2010) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Videorama (2009) (Greece) (all media)
• YLE Teema (2013) (Finland) (TV)
• Zeus Films (2009) (Taiwan) (all media)

Other Companies

• Aquarita  hairmake cooperation
• Aveda  hairmake cooperation
• Butaiya  hairmake cooperation
• Continental Far East  Dolby consultant
• East Japan Railway Co. (JR East)  filming cooperation
• Fredell Pogodin and Associates  Publicity
• Fuji Eiga (II)  vehicles
• Imagica  film processing and prints
• Kamiyama City  filming cooperation
• Kodak Japan  film stock supplied by
• Kyuu Kappou Obata  filming cooperation
• Kyuu Minatoza  filming cooperation
• Make Up For Ever  hairmake cooperation
• NK Agent  filming cooperation
• Nihon L'Oréal  hairmake cooperation
• Nihon Shomei Co.  lighting equipment supplied by
• On-Air Azabu Studio  recording studio
• Paul & Joe  hairmake cooperation
• Reeltime Creative  advertising agency (Trailers, Posters, Websites)
• Rodeo Street  vehicles
• Sakata City  filming cooperation
• Sakata Civic Hall Kibou Hall  filming cooperation
• Sakata Location Box  filming cooperation
• Sankyo Souko  filming cooperation
• Sanwa Cine Equipment  camera equipment supplied by
• Shonai Eigamura Co.  filming cooperation
• Snack Wa  filming cooperation
• Tsurunoyu  filming cooperation
• Tsuruoka City  filming cooperation
• Utowa  hairmake cooperation
• Victor Studio  recording studio
• Wonder Station  recording studio
• Yamagata Prefacture  filming cooperation

Also Known As:

"Okuribito" - Japan (original title)

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 Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:G (British Columbia) | Taiwan:PG-12 | UK:12A | Australia:M | Germany:o.Al. (f) | Denmark:A | Sweden:Btl | Mexico:B | Argentina:13 | Canada:G (Quebec) | Finland:K-12

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.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Daigo Kobayashi:[voice over narration] When I was a child winter didn't feel so cold. It's nearly two months since I moved home from Tokyo. It's been an awkward time.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Jeopardy!: Episode #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.