Departures

Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Departures is a delightful journey into the heartland of Japan as well an astonishingly beautiful look at a sacred part of Japan's cultural heritage. Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved, is suddenly left 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.

Departures

I considered The Class to be the best example of teaching I've ever seen, and Waltz with Bashir to be the best foreign film I saw in 2008, so it is going to take quite a lot to convince me that Departures is deserving of the Academy Award.

From the Seattle Times: Departures is such an elegant, beautifully mounted meditation on death, funeral customs and parent-child relations that you may find yourself sniffling and resisting simultaneously.

Join me at the Kendall for a viewing of Departures. After the film, we'll go to The Friendly Toast (if they have a full menu), or sit outside at Doyle's or CBC if the first day of summer isn't like the first day of November.

Specific start time will be posted when announced.