Movie: Departures

Departures
Directed by Yôjirô Takita

This is a fascinating film about a young man, Daigo, who is forced by economic factors to give up a career in music performance. After selling his cello and returning to the town where he grew up, he unexpectedly finds himself in the most unusual career of preparing bodies for encoffinment.

Though the profession is undesirable in many ways, and is misunderstood and derided by society, the formal, ceremonial washing and clothing of a loved-one's body in the presence of mourners proves to be an important cultural role. Daigo comes to see how treating the departed with beauty, dignity, and reverence brings closure and comfort to their families.

In Ecclesiastes 7:2 it says, "It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart." The truth of that verse is certainly borne out in the moving story of Departures. It's a story of a young man and his wife who learn a great deal about themselves and the beauty of life by looking squarely into the awful face of death.

The screenplay was written by Kundo Koyama and is loosely based on Aoki Shinmon's autobiographical book Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician. Koyama artfully weaves other types of departures into plot and character development: a father who forsakes his wife and son for unknown reasons; a son who left his mother behind to pursue a dream in the big city; a wife who leaves her husband returns to her home because she cannot accept his work; a co-worker who years ago abandoned her husband and six-year-old son because of an affair.

Deeply moving and provocative, this artistic and graceful film is not only worth watching, but also worth adding to my library. I highly recommend it.