Departures (2008)
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Departures Movie Review
Departures is a 2008 Japanese drama film directed by Yojiro Takita and starring Masahiro Motoki. It’s a solid and interesting, but ultimately typical flick.
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“The right of encoffinment is to prepare
the deceased for a peaceful departure“
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Daigo a cellist moves to his old hometown after he is rendered jobless due to his orchestra dissolving. He answers a classified ad, and finds his life changing due to his new job. Apparently death in Japan is an unpopular subject, and people dealing with death are frowned upon. That is explored in the protagonist’s job where he basically works as a mortician.
This is such an interesting subject matter that the movie frustratingly refused to explore it in more sophisticated and thematically rich terms. Religion for one is totally disregarded here which felt rather odd to me, but more importantly death itself and what happens after it was brushed aside in favor of all that emotional contrivance.
Yes, the movie is incredibly emotional, and basically to a fault. Once again the Academy honored a foreign film which pulls at the heartstrings, and very obviously at that. I personally really did not care for that manipulative, overlong third act.
To me, the first act is the best part, and the only great one here. That is where the movie felt still fresh, new and different. It had such an intriguing opening, the humor was fantastic in this section and the flick overall flowed really well, but everything afterwards dragged and it became standard in execution.
Masahiro Motoki is very strong in the main role, and also very good-looking. I found him charming, and the main character is so well developed, very likable and complex. I liked his relationship with his girlfriend, though at times their scenes were too clichéd.
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Departures is very well made with terrific cinematography, and of course a great score utilizing the cello fittingly so. I liked the dialogue quite a bit, but then again the themes are very few when in actuality the movie could have been so much smarter, and so much better in every way. It did not deserve its Oscar, and its win was very safe.
Departures has a terrific, intriguing first act with an interesting subject matter, good humor and fine storytelling. But afterwards, the movie became clichéd, highly emotionally manipulative and it frustratingly refused to tackle its many themes in any more sophisticated manner. It’s very well made and interesting, but ultimately overly simplistic for what should have been a very complex film.
