Okuribito - Death is not the end of humanity

It could be told from most of my entries that I'm amateurishly sentimental (speaking about professional, Yasmin Ahmad owned it). Okuribito (Departures) definitely deepened my understanding of this human's emotion, in coping with life. It does not really have mind-twisted-tricky plots because its events unravel predictably, but the film is profoundly affecting, well-written moving story, rich characters and superlative acting - Kudos to Yojiro Takita.


The fact that it has expected plots does not take away all the credits from other attributes of the movie. Kundo Kayama's screenplay has made the film very well-paced. I'm amazed by his way of putting real-life witty gist in every encoffing ceremonies.

In a scene, in the office, when it's snowing over Christmas outside, Sasaki, Yuriko and Daigo are enjoying fried chicken with wines. And Daigo grabs his old cello to play a song requested by Yuriko.

Daigo - Well what should I play?
Sasaki - Let's see.. something Christmasy
Daigo - Uh..will different religions bother you?
Sasaki - Don't worry. Buddism, Christian, Islam, Hindu. We handle all religions here.
Daigo - Then, for the Holy Night.

And there it goes the best version of Holy Night I've ever heard. This is another part that made me drown into the film, the music composed by Joe Hisaishi. Soundtracks have been my attentions in watching movies since Casablanca and I believe Hisaishi has composed and placed ALL the soundtracks well in the film. It was very moving piece for me. (And guess what..I just bought its original soundtracks!)

Regarding the acting, personally, I found it is hard to pull off Daigo Kobayashi character portrayed by Masahiro Motoki as I've been told by my acting mentor to put myself in actors shoes when I watch acting performances. Interconnected emotionally, Daigo and I have a common painful history except that he is healed, sadly with a heart-wrenching lost. Overall, I found that the actors never overplay, never spell out what can be said in a glance or a shrug, communicate great passion very quietly, as I wish Daigo's extremely cheerful wife, Mika (Ryoko Hirosue) was real.

As one of the runners for Best Foreign Language Film along with Waltz With Bashir, Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex and The Class, Departures definitely surprized lot of critics. From my perspective after watching all the films running for the title, I think Departures deserved the Oscar.

Death may be the termination of a life, but it's not the end of humanity.