Departures (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the Japanese movie. For a television series, see Departures (TV series).
Departures (おくりびと)

Japanese-language film poster
Directed by Yōjirō Takita
Written by Kundo Koyama
Starring Masahiro Motoki
Ryoko Hirosue
Tsutomu Yamazaki
Kimiko Yo
Kazuko Yoshiyuki
Takashi Sasano
Music by Joe Hisaishi
Cinematography Takeshi Hamada
Editing by Akimasa Kawashima
Distributed by Shochiku
Regent Releasing (USA)
Release date(s) Japan September 13, 2008
United States May 29, 2009
Running time 131 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese

Departures (おくりびと Okuribito?) is a 2008 Japanese film by Yōjirō Takita. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Oscars and has earned $61,010,217 in Japan as of April 12, 2009.[1]

Contents

[edit] Plot

Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a cellist in an orchestra in Tokyo, loses his job because of the dissolution of the orchestra. After quitting as a professional cellist he decides to sell his cello (which he had recently purchased for 18 million yen) and also to move back to his old hometown, Sakata, Yamagata, with his wife. One day he finds a classified advertisement for "Assisting departures" for an "NK Agency". He goes to the job interview thinking it is for a job at a travel agency but discovers that NK is an abbreviation for "encoffinment" (納棺 nōkan?) and that he is instead to assist the "departed" by ceremonially preparing the dead in front of mourners before their bodies are placed in the coffin. The interviewer, the President of the NK Agency, immediately decides to hire Daigo after confirming that he is able to work hard. The salary is 500,000 yen per month with an additional 20,000 yen bonus for the interview. With no other job prospects, Daigo decides to accept the offer. However, when he comes home to his wife he finds himself unable to admit the type of work he will be doing so he dissembles, saying that he is to be employed in the 'ceremonial occasions industry', which his wife misunderstands as a wedding company.

Daigo has a hard time at his first day of work, being made to act as a corpse in a DVD explaining the procedure of encoffinment. More harrowing still is his first assignment which is, in preparation for the wake, to clean, dress and apply cosmetics to the body of an aged woman who has died alone at home remaining undiscovered for two weeks. Beset with nausea at the sight and smell of her collapsed body, but in need of the money that is paid at the end of each day, Daigo sets out in his new career. Daigo completes a number of assignments and experiences the joy and gratitude at his work of those left behind, while enjoying playing his old cello during his time off. He starts to feel a sense of fulfillment in his work when his wife, Mika, (Ryoko Hirosue) finds the training DVD and begs him to give up such a "disgusting profession." Daigo, however refuses to quit, so his wife leaves him. Even his old friend, Yamashita (Tetta Sugimoto), learning of his job, tells him to get "a proper job", then avoids him because of his refusal.

Not long later however, Daigo's wife returns announcing that she is pregnant and pleads with him once again to find a different source of income. At this moment the telephone rings with a new assignment. Yamashita's mother, Tsuyako (Kazuko Yoshiyuki), who ran the local bathhouse on her own, has died. In front of Yamashita, his family and Mika, Daigo prepares Tsuyako's body for her wake and earns the respect and understanding of all present. Then one day, a telegram is delivered to Daigo's house, with notification of the death of Daigo's estranged father. Daigo refuses to see his dead father, but Mika and Daigo's co-worker convince him to go and even insist he take one of the business' display model coffins. When Daigo sees his father, he notices that he has left only one cardboard box of belongings, despite the fact that he lived 70-odd years. Funeral workers come to get Daigo's father's corpse, but Daigo decides to personally encoffin his father. As he encoffins him, Daigo finds a "stone-letter" he had given to his father when he was little; the stone-letter was grasped in his father's hands. When Daigo is finished, he recognizes the father he remembered and cries. As his father is carried away in a coffin, Daigo presses the stone-letter to Mika's pregnant belly.

[edit] Soundtrack

Okuribito
Soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi
Released 10 September, 2008
Label Universal Music (UMCK-1268)

All compositions by Joe Hisaishi.

  1. "Shine of Snow I" 1:12
  2. "Nohkan" 3:10
  3. "Kaisan" 0:53
  4. "Good-By Cello" 2:16
  5. "New Road" 1:15
  6. "Model 0:47
  7. "First Contact" 1:51
  8. 2Washing" 0:34
  9. "Kizuna I" 1:57
  10. "Beautiful Dead I" 3:12
  11. "Okuribito (On Record)" 1:51
  12. "Gui-Dance" 2:26
  13. "Shine of Snow II" 2:25
  14. "Ave Maria (Okuribito)" 5:29
  15. "Kizuna II" 2:04
  16. "Beautiful Dead II" 2:36
  17. "Father" 1:40
  18. "Okuribito (Memory)" 4:10
  19. "Okuribito (Ending)" 4:59

[edit] Production

Loosely based on Aoki Shinmon's autobiographical book Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician (納棺夫日記 Nōkanfu Nikki?)[2], the film was ten years in the making. Motoki studied the art of 'encoffinment' at first hand from a mortician, and how to play a cello for the earlier parts of the movie.[3] The director attended funeral ceremonies in order to understand the feelings of bereaved families.[3] While death is the subject of great ceremony, as portrayed in this movie, it is also a strongly taboo subject in Japan, so the director was worried about the film's reception and did not anticipate commercial success.[3]

[edit] Cast

[edit] Awards

[edit] International

[edit] Domestic

  • 51st Blue Ribbon Awards: Best Actor (Masahiro Motoki)
  • 33rd Hochi Film Awards: Best Film
  • 32nd Japan Academy Prize Best Film, Best Director (Yojiro Takita), Best writing (Kundo Koyama), Best Actor (Masahiro Motoki), Best Supporting Actor (Tsutomu Yamazaki), Best Supporting Actress (Kimiko Yo), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Lightings
  • 82nd Kinema Junpo Awards: Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor (Masahiro Motoki)
  • 63rd Mainichi Film Award: Best Japanese Film, Best Sound Mixing
  • 21st Nikkan Sports Film Award: Best Film and Best Director
  • 2008 Trailer ZEN Festival: Grand Prix
  • 30th Yokohama Film Festival: Best Film, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress (Kimiko Yo, Ryoko Hirosue)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/japan/?yr=2009&wk=15&p=.htm
  2. ^ http://www.screendaily.com/departures-tops-japanese-box-office-following-oscar-win/4043460.article
  3. ^ a b c Bob Tourtellotte and Isabel Reynolds (2009-02-23). "UPDATE 3-Mortician tale "Departures" surprises with Oscar". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUST31471620090223?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0. Retrieved 2009-02-23. 

[edit] External links

Awards
Preceded by
The Counterfeiters
 Austria		 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
2008		 Succeeded by
[To be determined]
Preceded by
Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad		 Japan Academy Prize for Picture of the Year
2009		 Succeeded by
[To be determined]
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Departures_(film)"