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Product Description
Extras:
- Making of Departures - 32 mins
- Encoffinment - A feature - 13 mins
Product Description
United Kingdom released, Blu-Ray/Region B DVD: LANGUAGES: Japanese ( Dolby Digital Stereo ), Japanese ( Dolby DTS-HD Master Audio ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Documentary, Interactive Menu, Making Of, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: Director Yojiro Takita and writer Kundo Koyama examine the rituals surrounding death in Japan with this tale of an out-of-work cellist who accepts a job as a 'Nokanashi' or 'encoffineer' (the Japanese equivalent of an undertaker) in order to provide for himself and his young wife. Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) is a talented musician, but when his orchestra is abruptly disbanded, he suddenly finds himself without a source of steady income. Making the decision to move back to his small hometown, Daigo answers a classified ad for a company called 'Departures', mistakenly assuming that he will be working for a travel agency. Upon discovering that he will actually be preparing the bodies of the recently deceased for their trip to the afterlife, Daigo accepts the position as gatekeeper between life and death and gradually gains a greater appreciation for life. But while Daigo's wife and friends universally despise his new line of work, he takes a great amount of pride in the fact that he is helping to ensure that the dead receive a proper send-off from this state of being. This thought-provoking look at life and death was Japan's submission for the Oscars in 2008. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Oscar Academy Awards, ...Departures (2008) ( Okuribito ) (Blu-Ray)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
43 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards ceremony in 2009. It is certainly unusual, and I rate it very highly indeed. Daigo Koboyashi loses his job as a 'cellist in a Tokyo orchestra, and he and his young wife, very charmingly played by Ryoko Hirosue, are forced to go back into the country and stay in the small house left to him by his mother. He needs work and gets it - as the assistant to an aging but highly expert 'encasketer' - that is, someone who prepares a dead body for burial, a ceremony conducted in the presence of family and friends. The ceremony, to Western eyes unfamiliar, is carried out with great dignity and care, and is an opportunity for those close to the departed to say farewell and to express their grief. The advert. for the job has been vague (partly the result of a misprint) and Daigo does not know what he is letting himself in for. For a while he faces many difficulties and eventually his marriage is under strain, but he stays with the job and comes to admire the skill and professionalism of his employer and to value highly the service they give to the bereaved. There are many other plot strands in the film, but, for those who have not seen it, I cannot write about these, except to say that eventually the work comes very close to Daigo personally, and when that happens, the film is extremely moving - the cinema in which I saw it was hushed, and some of the audience were in tears.
But it is also very funny. There is a bizarre side to the work (as, for example, when the encasketers discover - in front of the family - that the corpse - a girl, it would seem - has a penis) and there is a good deal of black humour in the earlier part of the film. All of the principal characters - Diago, Mika (his wife), the encasketer and his female secretary - are sympathetic characters and it is very easy to empathise with them, so that as the plot moves on, we become involved. Its quaintness is a plus too. Not only is the encasketing ritual intriguing, the town in which Diago and Mika stay, the bathhouse they visit, the very beautiful countryside (sometimes snow-covered) are all visually absorbing. Far on in the film, Diago is filmed playing his 'cello on a raised bank by a road with a snow-covered mountain in the background, and this is striking, even if it is also impossible to believe that he ever actually did this.
The film is quite long and I thought might outstay its welcome, but just at that point there was a splendid coup de theatre (in a fishing village) which really struck home - and then it ended. It was thoroughly enjoyable, beautifully acted and directed and, in its strangeness, memorable. I recommend it with enthusiasm.
But it is also very funny. There is a bizarre side to the work (as, for example, when the encasketers discover - in front of the family - that the corpse - a girl, it would seem - has a penis) and there is a good deal of black humour in the earlier part of the film. All of the principal characters - Diago, Mika (his wife), the encasketer and his female secretary - are sympathetic characters and it is very easy to empathise with them, so that as the plot moves on, we become involved. Its quaintness is a plus too. Not only is the encasketing ritual intriguing, the town in which Diago and Mika stay, the bathhouse they visit, the very beautiful countryside (sometimes snow-covered) are all visually absorbing. Far on in the film, Diago is filmed playing his 'cello on a raised bank by a road with a snow-covered mountain in the background, and this is striking, even if it is also impossible to believe that he ever actually did this.
The film is quite long and I thought might outstay its welcome, but just at that point there was a splendid coup de theatre (in a fishing village) which really struck home - and then it ended. It was thoroughly enjoyable, beautifully acted and directed and, in its strangeness, memorable. I recommend it with enthusiasm.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Hollywood mastered the construction of emotional roller coasters long ago but endless repetition inevitably results in cliche. Departures uses similar techniques, but manages to avoid feeling contrived because the cultural underpinnings are fresh and unfamiliar, to Western audiences at least. This film is a small gem that will make you laugh and cry, providing that you are still on this side of the Styx. Highly recommended.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is such a good film that it has to be in my top 30 movies. I originally saw it at a film conference at Glastone's Library a five muinet clip. There are not many films that treat death and how the dead are respected as this film dose. The sense of dignity that is there is worthy of a closest examination. With gentle humourn the film showsnthe dignity of preparing for peoples departure, not (and this is not a real spoiler) for their holiday but following their death. In the UK in the past it was the community mid wife who prepared the body for the funeral director to come and collect - laying it out washing and dressing it. A friend who's husband recently died said this was done by a couple of the carers who again did it with a great deal of dignity.
Departures is a great film the humour makes it lighter and the acting is superb, the direction well orchestrated and the music will haunt you until you look it up on the web.
Departures is a great film the humour makes it lighter and the acting is superb, the direction well orchestrated and the music will haunt you until you look it up on the web.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Quiet and slow
I enjoyed this film which had been recommended to me. It is a slow and gentle film, very atmospheric and nicely shot. I will certainly be watching it again, probably many times.
Published 22 days ago by ednaheap
Departures
I liked the film very much. It is a nice look to Japanese world of respect of dead people and the attitudes for the occupation. Nice indeed.
Published 1 month ago by JT
Sensitive and Beautiful Drama
In Judaism, we wrap the dead in robes, conduct a funeral procession leading to the graveyard, where people say prayers and bid farewell to the deceased. The, we bury the dead. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Profr R. Cohenalmagor
superb
This film is mesmerising. An uplifting story, beautifully acted, with wonderful photography. I loved every second and have sent this as a gift to several friends who also loved... Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. Hammond
Not Region Free as mentioned and can't play on my player
I live in Canada with Region A, since the movie title said that it is region free, so I purchase it. However, with my Blu-Ray player with Region A code, it can't play at all. Read more
Published 4 months ago by BluRayFan
Curious insights
If you ignore the sentimental moments (of which there are several), the lapses into broad characterisation and the creakiness of certain sections of the plot, what remains is a... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Dariush Alavi
Hard-earned acceptance
This is a movie about acceptance. The protagonist was a cellist, and lost his job in a symphony at the city. Read more
Published 4 months ago by AsiancCharm
Couldn't buy into it
Comedy drama. From Japan. Haven't seen one of them before.
Its got the sweeping Hollywood Big Strings treatment. Read more
Its got the sweeping Hollywood Big Strings treatment. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Jan Mecir
Believe them !
Apart from a quibble about techno formatting [which I didn't have a problem with] ALL the reviews are very positive , I agree wholeheartedly with the vast majority . Read more
Published 5 months ago by D.R.McBride
Fantastic
Who would have thought that a film about death could be so tender, compassionate and funny.
Rightly or wrongly, I tend to judge films by their emotional content and... Read more
Rightly or wrongly, I tend to judge films by their emotional content and... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Peter
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