When his orchestra disbands, Daigo Kobayashi moves back to his hometown and takes a job preparing corpses for burial. Too embarrassed to admit his new career to his family, Daigo keeps his profession a secret, until he’s faced with the death of someone close to him. Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Film.Departures is surely the gentlest, sweetest movie about death that you will ever see. A cellist named Diago (Masahiro Motoki) comes to the rueful conclusion that he’s not talented enough to make a career as a musician; having just returned to his hometown with his wife Mika (Ryoko Hirosue, Wasabi), he answers a job ad for what he thinks must be a travel agency… only to discover that company prepares bodies to be placed in coffins. Fearful of his wife’s response, he hides his new job–but as he grows to appreciate his boss (Tsutomu Yamazaki, Tampopo) and the affect that the humbling ceremony of cleaning and dressing the deceased has on their families, Diago discovers that he might have a calling. Departures won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and it’s easy to understand why. Though it starts out quietly and even seems slight, it gradually builds in emotional power, layer by layer, until scene after scene at the end is richly moving. Particularly affecting is the performance of Kimiko Yo, the secretary of the company, who harbors a troubling secret. A few moments of overt symbolism push the movie from compassion to sentimentality–but every time Departures seems to have lost its footing, a scene follows that strikes all the right notes so deftly it resonates like a bell. A truly marvelous movie. –Bret Fetzer
Buy “Departures” For Only $12.49
January 7, 2006
#1
It stated that the Departures movie had english subtitles. When it does not.
It is in Japanese, maybe Chinese. Was happy to recieve and unhappy to see there was no english anywhere on the video.
January 7, 2006
#2
First off, let me just say that I DO love this film. I saw it when it reached my local art-house theater, and I thought it was a fantastic motion picture. If this review was just for the film, I would easily give it five stars.
Sadly, the DVD has one glaring issue that, to me, is a major annoyance. On the English subtitle track (the only one, I might add) for the film, sound effect descriptions are included. Now I understand that such items are necessary for closed-captioning and English SDH subtitles — but not for regular translations of dialogue and text/signs from one language to another. They certainly aren’t used in theatrical subtitles of foreign-language films. Some people may not mind one way or another, but I don’t need to be notified all of the time when [chime rings] or [door closes] or [mutters to self].
If there is anyone at E1 Entertainment, or whoever published and distributed this in the US, I ask of you: please find some way to correct this.
January 7, 2006
#3
I read the previous buyer’s comment and the DVD has English subtitles. You have to be illiterate not to know if the subtitle option is not display on the menu then PRESS the subtitle BUTTON on the DVD remote control. It works! By the way great movie!
January 7, 2006
#4
This is a true Oscar winner, a master piece and a movie you will never forget!
January 7, 2006
#5
Even though this film is in Japanese this will not make any differents you will see the emotions of the characters’ and know what they are feeling .Director Yojiro Takita and writer Kundo Koyama examine the rituals surrounding death in Japan with this tale of an out-of-work cellist who accepts a job as a “Nokanashi” or “encoffineer” (the Japanese equivalent of an undertaker) in order to provide for himself and his young wife. Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) is a talented musician, but when his orchestra is abruptly disbanded, he suddenly finds himself without a source of steady income. Making the decision to move back to his small hometown, Daigo answers a classified ad for a company called “Departures,” mistakenly assuming that he will be working for a travel agency. Upon discovering that he will actually be preparing the bodies of the recently deceased for their trip to the afterlife, Daigo accepts the position as gatekeeper between life and death and gradually gains a greater appreciation for life. But while Daigo’s wife and friends universally despise his new line of work, he takes a great amount of pride in the fact that he is helping to ensure that the dead receive a proper send-off from this state of being. – Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide I do highly recommend this film