I watched Departures last night, a Japanese movie about death.
Well, that's not true. It's not really about death, though it's certainly about our attitudes toward death. The main character is a young man who has to give up his dream of world travel as a concert cellist and return to his late mother's home. Fate leads him into a job as a nokan or NK agent, a person who prepares bodies for the coffin.
This is a ritualized process of great dignity, as the respectful work of washing, dressing, and making up the body is performed in front of the grieving family. We see several times how witnessing this work helps change people's minds, not only about the NK agent (who would want to have such a job?) but about the deceased, as the preparation restores the body to a condition that revives happy memories or helps overcome emotional blocks.
The movie did not depress me, though I certainly see that death confronts others more strongly than me. I think we are too much removed from death, whether it is of the animals we consume ("the living eat the dead," as one scene in the movie memorably makes clear) or of the people who pass from our lives -- as they all will if we don't first. Yes, I cried, but that's a low bar for me when others are crying in the scene. (I also cry at comedies, so don't judge by me.)
As a movie, though it won the foreign picture Academy Award last year, some of it is predictable and some seems superfluous. His cello career, for instance, is both central to the plot and utterly disconnected from it, though it did give an excuse for some nice cinematic interludes -- and note that the US posters and DVD cover emphasize that instead of, you know, dead bodies. These are small complaints, though, and probably necessary compromises when presenting a film about such a taboo subject. I'm extremely glad I watched it and recommend it highly.
