Okuribito (Departures)

Okuribito is a Japanese film that is known for the "Best Foreign Film" in 2009's Academy Award. After hearing the film from a friend, I've decided to take a shot. This is a film about an introverted married man named Daigo Kobayashi (played by Masahiro Motoki) pursuing his life long dream. After Daigo felt he failed as a celloist, he decided to move from Tokyo to Yamagata, where he grew up in. After realizing that Yamagata was a hard place to find a job, he saw the ad from a newspaper and interviewed for a job that he thought he would become a travel agent, but only end up as an encoffiner, a job that takes care of the funeral service. Although it is a relatively high paying job, it is considered as a dirty job in Japan (from the reaction of Mika and Yamashita), as death is considered a taboo in most Asian countries. This film is loosely based on an autobiography from Aoki Shinmon, a real-life encoffiner who wrote a book about his job.

The thing I like about this film was the idea of making a film that talks about people after their lives. As death is considered a taboo and dirty in most Asian countries, the film gave another perspective to audience how people view the death of their love ones. The film also talked about how conservative people are, when Daigo's old friend and wife, Yamashita and Mika, felt the job Daigo has was not a "real" job that normal people should have. Daigo felt happy and satisfaction when he noticed the death's relative gave gratitude of his work. He realized death is a part of life for everyone, and it should treated respectively.

I found Mika's role (played by Ryoko Hirosue) kind of boring in the beginning, because she was opposed to Daigo's job, probably afraid to the fact that Daigo would be discriminted by other people, or that she could not accept a husband that has a "dirty job". She was basically an obedient house wife that tried her best to make her husband happy, as her own happiness comes from Daigo. At first, she could not accept Daigo's job, until Tsuyako died in the bath house. From that point she started to understand Daigo's feeling about the job. Her support has made Daigo open his heart to other her, as he felt that he has something to be proud of. There is a lot of stuff that I did not talk about, you should go watch the film if you are interested. (7.8/10)