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Departures
from E1 Entertainment
Release Date : 2010-01-12
Sales Rank : 448
List Price: $26.98 Our Price: $18.49
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Average Customer Rating : 
Total Customer Reviews : 51
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Departures Customer Reviews:
Departures
I saw Departures at the City of Tacoma, Washington's annual Sister Cities International Film Festival as the entry from Kitakyushu, Japan. I was not aware that Departures had been awarded the Oscar for the best foreign language film in 2009. To say the film was stunningly beautiful is an understatement. Director Yohiro Takita's comments explain how the film's beauty was thoughtfully played out. Takita expressed that he was surprised that the film got such wide approval outside of Japan.
Amazing self reflecting film. Touches the coldest heart
Just watched this film last night at the international cinema at my university. I also play the cello so I decided to go see this movie on a whim after seeing a poster displayed for it. I had no idea what it was about, but I found it humorous and touching. I feel this film gives a good insight to part of Japanese culture and parts of its beautiful landscape. Beautiful Japanese proverbs and customs are displayed in this film, the sort of gems I want to share with my family and friends. This film makes me want to visit Japan, I had no idea how beautiful the landscape is out in the country in Japan. All the characters are refreshing and feel like real people I know. The main actor does a great job of faking his ability to play the cello, I had no idea he couldn't play till I started looking up this film on the internet after I watched it. This film made me cry, in the best heart warming way it could. As another reviewer put it, it did not overly manipulate the audience, but the characters performance drew us in to the emotions of their families. I love this film and will be getting it on DVD. I highly suggest viewing it.
A Wonderful Movie
Even though this film is in Japanese this will not make any differents you will see the emotions of the characters' and know what they are feeling .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. - Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide I do highly recommend this film
Words Fail To Describe, But Two Are: Respect & Beauty
This movie is on the netflix instant watch. In very real ways this movie is simular to Dances With Wolves and The Last Samurai because of a personal journey an individual takes.
The main character's journey leads to profound inner and outer changes that can't be understood really and explained to others. These type movies are hauntingly beautiful in each their own ways. This is such a movie about such inner knowing and following inner guidance.
What blew me away about this movie was the total love and respect that deceased loved ones are treated with. It is amazing and words fail. The compassion and depth with which can only be described as a 'blending' of the person handeling the deceased body blending with the spirit of that person in a very real down to earth way. The actor that plays this has nailed that 'blending' if you will and I promise you will feel it. Keep your kleenix handy. But it's a good sadness. And that comes across as well.
Funeral homes in the west can't match this. They try, surely, and yet, this movie about another culture to westerners touches a commonality that all human beings share. I could only hope I was treated like this when I transition.
Truly moving and yes, funny, profound movie. The music *alone* is worth a watch, the price of the movie itself. If you fell in love with the cello in De Vinci Code and Angels And Demons, you will also be drawn along with this music.
The subtitles are not easy yet the movie is easy to follow. Brilliant acting that is understated and perfectly played by all. Perfect. It's the kind of acting that doesn't require a lot of words. Truly spectacular and spiritual lightyears beyond dogma and labels.
Departures/Arrivals: 'The gift of last memories'
DEPARTURES (aka OKURIBITO) is an experience film, one of those graceful creations of cinema that finds the balance between comedy and drama, sensitive and sentimental, and is embellished by a wondrous musical score and glowing cinematography. Running time is in excess of two hours, but likely most viewers would elect to rewind and watch it again, so touching and vital is this story.
Daigo Kobayashi (the enormously gifted Masahiro Motoki) was raised by his mother when his father for some reason left his family when Daigo was only six years old: his last memory of his father is a quiet scene by the ocean when the child and the father exchange found rocks. Daigo was encouraged by his parents to learn to play the cello so that he could amount to something special as a man. Things happen: Daigo goes off to study cello, his mother dies and he doesn't attend the funeral, he marries Mike (Ryoko Hirosue), and spends all their money on a prime cello to gain admission to the major orchestra in the city. The orchestra plays to near empty houses and is finally disbanded. Daigo is without an income, sells his prize cello, and with Mika's blessing, returns to his hometown to live in the home of his childhood. He answers an ad for work, an ad that uses the word 'Departures' making Daigo think this is a travel agency. When Daigo 'interviews' with the owner (Tsutomu Yamazaki) he discovers that the job in one called 'encoffinment' (a Japanese ceremonial procedure of preparing, dressing & praying for the corpse before putting them in the coffin). At first repulsed by the job, Daigo gradually discovers the importance of paying final respects to the dead and preparing them for the life ahead, and his experiences with the new found beauty of encoffinment ties in with memories of his family, recalls his estrangement from his father, and reunites him with old dear friends who run a bath house, etc. Mika is spared the truth about her husband's new job, and when she discovers the truth, Mika leaves Daigo who by now is enchanted with his position.
Many experiences follow as Daigo encoffins all manner of people: there are some ugly scenes and some very humorous scenes depicting the variety of 'calls' Daigo gets. How the story winds down is not necessarily difficult to discern, but the manner in which the film ends is a work of great simplicity and beauty. Daigo's dealing with departures allows him to find his own arrivals.
Writer Kundo Takita and director Yôjirô Takita well deserve all the awards lavished on this perfect little film. But much of the success of this story about another way to view death is the astonishingly multifaceted performance by Masahiro Motoki, a beautiful man and an equally beautiful actor. This is a film to watch repeatedly and definitely one to add to the personal library of DVDs. Grady Harp, February 10
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