Departures (Okuribito) [M]

Director: Yojiro Takita

Starring: Masahiro Motoki, Ryoko Hirosue, Tsutomu Yamazaki

Japanese drama — Daigo Kobayashi is a young, married cellist who played in an orchestra that has just been disbanded.

Suddenly on the street without a job, Daigo decides to move back to his hometown with his wife. There he gets a job as a nokanshi (undertaker). He sees himself as a sort of gatekeeper between life and death.

Daigo's work is despised by all the people around him. But it is through his relationship with death on a daily basis that Daigo begins to understand what life is really about. (PN)

Winner of the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Plea for Understanding

This is an astonishing film because, apart from the main themes of love, life, death and grief, it deals, albeit in a somewhat–peripheral manner, with the issue of the Burakumin — the unclean caste of Japan.

In earlier times the Burakumin were forced to live in separate villages and perform work such as grave digging, butchery, leather work and carrying out executions — jobs that were “dirty” according to Buddhist and Shinto beliefs.

An idea of the depth of anti–Burakumin feeling can be gained from the caste's other names — Eta (abundant pollution) and Hinin (non–human).

The caste was officially abolished by the Emancipation Act of 1871 but the discrimination continues in much of modern–day Japan. Employers often do background investigations in case a prospective employee has any Buraku history and parents will frequently hire private detectives to check on prospective in–laws.

And that's what make this film so astonishing — it was made in Japan and it numbers ten Japan Academy awards among its many prizes. As much as anything else, Departures is a plea for understanding and acceptance.

Japanese Press Reaction

“Okuribito became a favorite with not only critics but also audiences, recording more than 2.6 million admissions and earning more than ¥3 billion at the box office. These are astounding figures for a Japanese film not based on a popular TV show, anime, manga or novel, and whose subject matter is fraught with cultural taboos.” — The Japan Times

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Internet Movie Database listing for Departures