Plot

Soon after buying an expensive cello, Daigo learns that his orchestra is disbanding. He moves back to his hometown with his wife, where he answers an ad for what Daigo thinks is a travel agency but is, in actuality, a mortuary.

Daigo Kobayashi is a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and now finds himself without a job. Daigo decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled "Departures" thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer," a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art of "Nokanshi," acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living.—Regent Releasing

Daigo plays cello in a Tokyo orchestra that dissolves. He's not good enough to find another chair, so he asks his cheerful wife Mika to move to his boyhood home in the shadow of Mt. Fuji. She assents. His mother is dead; his father left them when Daigo was small. He answers an ad, thinking it's for a travel agency, but it's to prepare bodies for burial in a ceremony in front of family and friends. The boss, Sasaki, is quietly forceful; Daigo takes the job, giving Mika no details. As he finds dignity in the ritual and a father figure in Sasaki, Daigo learns how others see this "unclean" work. Has he found a place in the world; if so, what about Mika and his buried memories?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

After the abrupt dissolution of his Tokyo orchestra, the unsuccessful young cellist, Daigo, finds himself jobless and with a heavy financial debt on his shoulders. To start afresh, Daigo and his supportive wife, Mika, decide to return to his rural hometown of Yamagata in northern Japan, to settle in his childhood home, while searching for a new job--any job. Back to square one, an unexpected employment ad for what sounds like a job in a travel agency will seem like a promising offer; however, an unlucky misprint will soon reveal that this job refers to a mortician instead. Little by little, as the fresh apprentice plunges deep into an unknown world of ceremonial funeral preparation often viewed with disgust and disdain, Daigo's little secret will threaten everything he has worked for. But what if this is his true calling in life?—Nick Riganas

When his orchestra is dissolved, cellist Daigo Kobayashi is left unemployed. He and his wife move back to his home town where he answers a job ad, working with 'Departures'. He gets and takes the job, thinking it's a travel agency, but it turns out it involves preparing people for cremation or burial. Is he cut out for this and what will his wife and friends think?—grantss