Departures
I went into watching Departures not looking forward to it thinking it would just be a serious Japanese movie about funerals; not much fun you can have there. However, to my surprise, from the opening scene in the movie where he discovers that the dead girl has a "thing", I was laughing quite a bit. The director of the movie was clearly a very creative man because he made me feel melancholy and happy at the same time in the funeral scenes, which clearly is no easy task.
The aspect of the movie which fascinated me the most was the job of working with dead bodies and mastering the art of Nokanshi. It did not surprise me that this job was an undesirable due to what one has to deal with in that line of work, but Daigo reluctantly accepts it because of the large amount of money involved in it. I was quite shocked to see that when his wife found out what his job was she nearly left him because it was so evident the love that they had for one another. I think leaving someone you love because of a job they have is stupid, even if society frowns upon it. I respect Daigo for keeping his job despite what others thought since it was clear that what he did made those grieving much happier.
In addition, I thought the movie had an excellent display of men and women in society. The secretary at the funeral parlor was always responsible for preparing the tea for Daigo and his boss. As for Daigo and his wife, he held the job supporting their family while his wife did all the housework and cooking.
Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and would recommend it to all of my friends to watch.
I agree that it was a good movie that did a good job at showing how Japanese people saw death as impure and show their funeral process.
ReplyDeleteI had never known of any of these practices in Japan. This movie also interested me a lot and also had me laughing at a few parts.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed watching this movie and it really did a good job of shining light on cultural practices and values.
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