Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: DEPARTURES (2008)

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 07-12-2009, 02:35 PM:

I finally had the opportunity to see DEPARTURES (Okuribito) yesterday at the Kapolei 16 yesterday. The Japanese movie won the best foreign film Academy Award for 2008 and in my opinion, richly deserved. OKURIBITO was directed by Yojiro Takita from a screenplay by Kundo Koyama and starred Masahiro Motoki as Daigo who loses his job as a cello player with a symphony orchestra when the group dissolves due to financial hardship. Together with his wife Mika, played by Ryko Hirose, leaves Tokyo and return to their hometown in the country to start a new life together. First on the agenda for Daigo is to find a new job. He promptly finds one when he he responds to a classified ad in the newspaper. Because of an error in the way the ad was prepared, Daigo was unaware that the position was not in the travel industry but that of Nokanshi (Encoffneer) who prepares the recently deceased for their funeral and cremation. Everyone including his wife, urges Daigo to resign and find a more suitable job but he is now more determined to master the craft and become very good at it and does. The film is interwoven with both comedic moments and times when your eyes will swell up with tears.

On a side note, the film was released in the United States by Regent Releasing but was distributed in Japan by the Shochiku company. What I saw yesterday was entirely a Japanese print with English subtitles and the Shochiku logo. I grew up watching Shochiku films with my parents and I have always admired the logo which consisted of Fuji San (Mount Fuji) with the company seal on the bottom. Instead of seeing majestic Mt Fuji on the logo, the mountain has now been replaced with a plain graphic of a mountain that does not even look like the sacred Japanese mountain. The company seal has not been changed and it appears on the bottom as usual. I do not like it at all.

5 out of 5 for the movie.

-Claude