Masterpiece winner of the Far East 2009 (both the Audience Award and with the Black Dragon Award), 2009 Oscar Award in the category "Best Foreign Film", dozens of awards in film festivals around the world, especially in Japan, almost always in the categories "Best Film", a successful stratospheric box office in the mother country, which is incredible for a film with an original screenplay (though freely based on the autobiography of Shinmon Aoki, 纳 棺 夫 日记 ( Nōkanfu Nikki ) English title " Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician ") is not taken from television series or manga, and not a common subject, that of death and management of a dead body, physiologically fled and feared by the "live ". Significant corollary of this is the ultimate taboo of the confidentiality of the Japanese funeral ceremony, reserved exclusively for family narrow and therefore difficult to express cinematically without arousing mixed feelings in the Japanese public. Departures, a term coming directly from the English translation of a funny scene from the film, is not an exact translation of the Japanese title that is おくり びと ( Okuribito ): This word comes from the verb 見送る ( Miokuru ) which expresses the action of the healthy from the ground a deceased person who is already in heaven while we contemplate with the eyes. It just takes the part of the "healthy " 送る ( Okuru ) and joins the ideogram 人 ( Hito ), which together with the previously mentioned verb ingorizza is becoming "the framework ": " Okuribito " is the person who welcomes the dead to heaven, meaning more metaphorical than physical.
We are in the hard winter 酒 田 ( Sakata), Yamagata Prefecture. A young 纳 棺 师 ( nokanshi ) performing the ritual of the recomposition of the body of a beautiful young woman before her deposition in the coffin. His old mentor, welcomed the following to practice the graceful movements of an ancient and fascinating, brilliant of piety, composed of dignity, full of love that the living can no longer give to the dead, delegating so unique and special person.
Prior to conducting this work, Daigo was a cellist in an orchestra in Tokyo, unfortunately after the dissolution thereof, the young man is out of work and decide to move to his home town of Sakata. Here, in a newspaper ad reads an ad: "Wanted staff, even without experience, specialized agency in departures. Convinced it is a travel agency, Daigo makes contact with the elderly owner, who hired him without even reading the resume. Soon the boy realizes that this is an agency of the funeral, a 葬 仪 屋 ( Sōgiya ): his initial offers to hide him away from hateful gossip but, given the small size of the city were not slow in coming, even undermining the solidity of his marriage. Here begins a new path for Daigo, sometimes painful, to find inner peace and serenity and the respect of others.
Beautiful, sensitive, poignant and seemingly perfect a film in which festival-goers have given a nice 5 / 5 (the vote was 4 / 5 but in my own yardstick to FEFF Japanese movies are always a plus point) . Indeed, not a fan of Asian cinema can truly appreciate this film the classic Japanese film slow lamented by those who you approach for the first time is less heavy usual, the theme is extremely interesting for its rarity and also applies the vision of two hours and ten minutes into the film: there is a better overall balance of the collection. A film esportabilissimo, a successful challenge once again from far-sighted and reckless executive producer 间 瀬 泰 宏 ( Mase Yasuhiro ). It 'important to note that Departures had its most important victory in the motherland, in Japan, where a huge public success has marked the fall of a great taboo, cleared through customs cinematic figure of 纳 棺 师 ( nokanshi ) and the practice of funeral , things that in years of Japanese cinema had never seen personally. None it would have bet on this film and the film is about just this problem: the marginalization of Daigo because of his work comes from a feeling shared by many people around the world. We all fear of the gravediggers, anyone at least once in their life tried to imagine how it would work from gravedigger, and even touch the dead : not in this case the "fear of difference" to frighten people, but the most natural fear of death, to escape what they feared even more as an idea. From here you can instead create the groundwork for an interesting movie, because in addition to showing things that no one has ever seen (the practice of the composition of the corpse in front of relatives, at least in Europe I think it is so widespread ...), allows you to show a reassuring daily in a work so special, and it is then possible to put the viewer at ease with the inclusion of macabre fun situations: an expedient, to play with death without ever falling into bad taste, absolutely brilliant.
good interpretation 本 木 雅 弘 (Masahiro Motoki ) as Daigo, and an equally valid test 広 末 凉子 (Ryoko Hirosue ), the unforgettable little face of the daughter of Jean Reno in Wasabi, who plays his wife, the presence of pleasant 山崎 努 ( Tsutomu Yamazaki ) a great film career behind and many role-thick (I do not forget that in Sekachu Sakutaro's grandfather), who plays the elderly owner of the agency.
Well, I am happy for this Oscar winner, absolutely not undeserved, and that gives luster to the Japanese cinema, after the one won in 2001 by Hayao Miyazaki with 千 と 千尋 の 神隠し (Sen To Chihiro No Kamikakushi - Spirited Away). But who knows in Japanese cinema and made the call at the Japanese contemporary drama, can not help but note that this is a film built on purpose to rip tears, with a sound not bad nè sgradevole ma ripetitivo che se vogliamo enfatizza ancora di più le scene commoventi e tristi. Forse scontato come struttura, utilizza la morte per i suoi fini di genere, come tutti gli esponenti del genere 純愛( Jun-ai – vero amore), ma senza utilizzare il topic dell'amore. Grazie a questo film le autorità di Sakata dovrebbero ergere un monumento in onore della produzione, visto che l'affluenza turistica nella cittadina è spaventosamente esplosa fino a mettere in ginocchio le sue capacità ricettive, un pò come accadde per Aji, nell'isola di Shikoku, location di Sekachu, che ancora oggi vive di turismo cinematografico (io ho contribuito ad esso nell'estate del 2008).
Unico of its kind and unique, like that which shows an absolute must even also in terms of knowledge of Japanese culture, well done and never boring, delicate but ironically, a perfect balance created and perfected by the great director 滝 田 洋 二郎 ( Takita Yojiro ), balance, without which, Mase's words, would it really all to pieces.
A souvenir photo with the FEFF11 间 瀬 泰 宏 ( Mase Yasuhiro ), producer of this film, the thriller as a hospital Nakamura.
おくり びと ( Okuribito - Departures)
Japan, 2008 - directed by 滝 田 洋 二郎 ( Takita Yojiro )
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