Departures - DVD

Departures - DVD (2008)

This was one of the movies at last years film festival that I intended to go and see, and somehow it never happened. Daigo finally has his dream job of being a cellist with a Tokyo orchestra, when lack of audiences force the owner to dissolve the group. So, with his wife he ends up returning to his late mothers home and making a life in a small town.

Replying to an advertisement in the local paper, he attends a job interview and finds himself working with a boss, preparing dead bodies for the undertaker. Rather than being gruesome, the Japanese traditions of washing and clothing the body for their placement in the coffins is gentle and beautiful and involves the whole family and friends. Something we in the west have lost, and I think are poorer for, as we have forgotten the rituals of mourning, of letting go and saying goodbye and accepting death as an inevitable part of living. 3/5

I didn't expect to be quite as moved as I was by this movie. My own mum had planned her own group of girlfriends, including her hairdresser to go to the funeral home and get her dressed, do her hair and makeup which I thought was nice. We then had her at home in her coffin for the four days preceding her funeral which was comforting.

Movies about dying and funerals always get to me, and there are always tears. There were also tears looking at the choice of tv I get on the two channels I could see, Adam Sandler as Zohan or more CSI - grrrrrrrrrrr!!