departures

An excellent movie! Daigo Kobayashi, an unemployed cellist, moves back to his home town to look for work and chases a job with a company called Departures. He believes the job is with a travel company, but when he turns up for an interview discovers that his job will be to help prepare bodies of the deceased for cremation. He is horrified and there are light-hearted moments as he poses as a corpse for a short film on the skill of cleaning the deceased's body.On his second day at work he is required to help move the corpse of a woman who had died two weeks previously. Gradually Daigo learns the art of his new career and finds fulfillment in honouring the dead by preparing their mortal remains for the next stage of their journey.

The film amuses whilst dealing with the serious and taboo subject of death. Daigo cannot bring himself to admit to anyone what his new career is and when his wife inadvertently discovers what he does she is so appalled that she leaves him. The rituals of death are shown to be calm, patient and loving. The unacceptability of being an embalmer fades as Daigo and those around him see the usefulness and importance of his line of work.

Despite its rather grim theme and some very sad moments the film left me feeling quite upbeat.