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Departures (Okuribito)
Winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, Japanese film Departures is a character study of a man who finds fulfilment and a depth of human connection in the most unlikely profession.
Daigo (Masahiro), a cellist, is laid off from his orchestra and moves with his wife back to his small hometown where the living is cheaper. Thinking he’s applying for a job at a travel agency he finds he’s being interviewed for work with departures of a more permanent nature – as an undertaker’s assistant. Little by little he warms to his new profession, endowing the elaborate funeral ceremonies with grace and humanity. [Source: NZ International Film Festival]
Starring Motoki Masahiro, Yamazaki Tsutomu , Hirosue Ryoko, Yoshiyuki Kazuko, Sasano Takashi, Yo Kimiko
Directed by Yôjirô Takita ('Blood Gets in Your Eyes')
Written by Koyama Kundo
Festivals & Awards Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film, 2009.
Drama | 2hr 11mins | Rated (M) | suitable for mature audiences | Origin: Japan | Language: In Japanese with English subtitles | Official Site »
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The Talk
44 votes / No comments
Flicks review
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4
Departures starts out unexpectedly with some bizzaro humour before transitioning seamlessly into a quiet drama about family and relationships and finally a tearjerker. All this unfolds at a positively Zen like pace that allows intimate moments to fully resonate while still coming across natural and unforced. This approach also captures the gentle rhythms of life in small town Japan, and many moments play up its picturesque qualities.
Modern Japanese cinema has become predominantly characterized by outrageous anime and extreme cult films so this subtle approach is refreshing in context. You can call it old fashioned but I'd call it classical, and the themes it addresses – life, loss and personal connections – should resonate with just about everybody.
This is the film that beat out my favourite of last year, Waltz with Bashir, for the best foreign language Oscar. As a result, I went in with a chip on my shoulder but by the end it had won me over. Seldom, if ever, do you see people crying at the end of a media screening but that’s what happened here – a fitting testament to Departures' emotional power.
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The people's reviews
6 reviews
Press Reviews
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Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert)
The movie is uncommonly absorbing.
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Hollywood Reporter
Yojiro Takita, who directed enduring commercial hits like "The Ying Yang Master" and "The Yen Family," has made a popular gem -- thematically respectable, technically hard to fault, artfully scripted to entertain and touch.
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Los Angeles Times
The film manages to be anything but dark; whimsy and sweet irony are laced throughout, a warmhearted blend that turned it into the surprise winner of 2008's Oscar for foreign-language film.
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New York Times
Overlong, predictable in its plotting and utterly banal in its blending of comic whimsy and melodramatic pathos.
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NZ Herald (Peter Calder)
4
Sentimental and formulaic but polished and affecting.
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Otago Daily Times (Mark Orton)
4
To suggest that Departures could not have been made outside Japan is a tad simplistic, but it is unlikely. Perhaps in the hustle and bustle of contemporary Japan, achieving serenity through the snail's pace of a slowly evolving story is refreshing. It certainly is to these eyes.
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Variety (USA)
TV scribe Kundo Koyama's first bigscreen script peppers the proceedings with rich character detail and near-screwball interludes that shouldn't fit but somehow do.
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