Yojiro Takita's "Departures"

Departures was released in 2008, and won the Japanese Oscar and Foreign Film Oscar for its year.  Takita won praise for the earlier samurai period piece "When the Last Sword is Drawn".  An interesting turn of events, as Takita began his career as a porn director.  In the past decade though, there are few Japanese directors more lauded in the native land as Takita.

To understand Departures, you have to understand a bit of Japanese traditional culture.  In Japan, only the lowliest of those on the social ladder dealt with death.  One of the biggest taboos of Japan is the touching of a dead body.  This is juxtaposed with the tradition that a body must be washed, properly dressed, and ritually prepared before it is cremated.  In Japan, one must trust the last rite of their loved ones to the lowest of society.  For many it was a thankless job that meant they would be shunned.

This happens to the main character in this movie.  A musician, Daigo, learns that he will not be able to continue his life as a paid musician and must look for a new job.  He is attracted to a job because of its high pay, and before he knows it, he's presented with the choice of being a mortician by and aging man that will soon not be able to perform his duties.  With no one to pass his skills down to, the traditional death rites will soon be forgotten, and the impersonal, modern way of dealing with the dead will take over.   Daigo must make the choice between not only being shunned and money, but also keeping this deeply personal practice alive in the modern world.

The movie is powerful, emotional, and at time funny.  Takita is heralded as a champion of traditional ideas in the modern world, and this movie makes a good, sentimental case for why keeping some traditions are important.  Do not expect action, adventure and kung-fu in this foreign film, this is a story about loss, love, and human dignity.  Its uplifting and inspiring, and is one of my favorite films of all time.  Japan is doing the kind of heartfelt movies that Hollywood will not touch anymore.  Takita's directing is amazing, he is the master in understating, and not telling the viewer everything that is happening on screen; the view must watch and look to read emotions on faces to understand the context of scenes.  If you have seen When the Last Sword is Drawn, then you will see his hand in this as well.