Departures was the film chosen for Muddy Water Zen's most recent film screening this past Saturday evening. This past Sunday was also the Ullambana service, which helps us remember and pay respects to our ancestors and reminds us of the inevitability of death. Departures is a film that deals with this subject and which also won the Academy Award for best Foreign Film in 2009 and is also the recipient of 32 other awards.
Daigo Kobayashi is a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and now finds himself without a job. Daigo decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled "Departures" thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer," a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art of "Nokanshi," acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living.
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