Okuribito

Dear diary,

Some time ago, I watched this Oscar-winning Japanese film called Okuribito (Departures).

A gift of last memories. Such a beautiful line!

It’s about this guy that gave up his passion for cello and started working as an undertaker assistant. Quite a deviant theme for a movie.

“He rediscovers the meaning of life by elaborately cleaning, preparing and enlivening the dead corpses for cremation under the close observance of mourning relatives.”

It’s quite bitter to watch a few funerals in one film, one after another, but somehow it’s a very heartwarming story with allusive values in it.

I love how Ben Tsui pointed out the following in his review:

“According to Zen Buddhist beliefs, the samsaric lifespan is an endless cycle of birth, suffering, death and rebirth. It is no surprise that this film was full of these opposing motifs of passing and arrivals. The film began with the loss of Kobayashi’s cherished city musician job; yet to his relief, found a new career as a mortician in his old village. During one home cooking scene, the husband and wife relieved a destined food source which sprung to life again by returning it back into the running river. The hands of the living and the dead simultaneously intertwined as the encoffinner began massaging his corpses. As Kobayashi reluctantly sold his beloved concert cello, his wife Mika announced her impending pregnancy to him. Reincarnation played a very important role in the story.”