Departures, a Japanese movie which depict the story of a young man,Daigo Kobayashi working as a mortician which bis responsible for dressing and preparing the bodies ritually following the Japanese traditions. Due to the lost of jobs as a cellist in Tokyo based orchestra and the happening of few incidents such as the death of his mother which eventually resulted him getting in touch with the job of mortician by chance. He initially faced a lot of difficulties in performing the job and even attempt to give up. As times goes by he was able to aware the meaning and importance of the job which eventually motivated him to continue working as mortician aside of the high paid salary. The movie also presented few conflicts of him with his father, friends and wife due to different reasons and situations where he was able to cope with it as the story progress. There are few highlights in the movie that I would particularly to mention in this movie review.
The theme of death
Death is often a taboo in our daily life where we do not simply mention and discuss death. The movie attempt to tell us what is happening to those who left behind after the death of their beloved ones. The movie showed that death do not only involved one person but also friends, families and loved ones. Those who are left behind will feel the sorrow and sadness for their lost of the close ones. Death is sudden and often unpredictable and will leave us regrets when we found out that we did not appreciate them enough and sooner when they were still there for us. This was shown in the movie where the lost of Daigo's both parents, where he felt guilt for not taking care of his mother and the father that he initially hated and felt that the father would not even remember their promise until the end of the movie.
The purpose of the death rituals and ceremonies
One of the insights I had gained through the movie is my further understanding of death rituals and ceremonies. From the movie, I personally viewed that the purpose of performing the death rituals which is Japanese traditional 'encoffining' ceremony in the movie was initially for those who were left behinds of the death of their loved ones. Although there are different explanation for the purpose of the ritual, however I personally viewed the main purpose was to affirm the truth and the fact to those who left behinds that their loved ones are truly dead and would not be back to life. At the ending part of the death ceremonies performed in the movie, it can be seen that most of the families and friends were burst into tears and sadness towards their lost of loved ones. These scenes of movie then gives me a new view towards the necessities of death rituals were initially for those who left behind so that they are able to be more acceptance towards the reality of losing their loved ones.
Finally, this movie is awesome and certainly deserve to be in the one of my best movie lists. The movie is able to inspire people to view death in a different perspective leading re-evaluation of previous views and beliefs.
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