Daigo is not able to tell the truth to his wife about his new job. He manages to follow the boss and many surprising cases even though he keeps wondering if he could do the job. As he observes the boss’ peaceful, beautiful, graceful ceremony of encoffination with calmness and precision, however, he is deeply moved and finds himself mysteriously attracted to the work. But his new career is discovered by his wife and she leaves him, saying, “Come and see me if you quit.” He struggles alone. At the same time, he finds fulfillment, preparing the dead for eternity. The mixed feelings lead him to move back to his haven, cello. Opening his child cello, he discovers a rough stone that his father who left him when he was six gave him. With painful memory in his childhood, Diago grows to develop a deep respect for life in all its variations and a profound empathy for people trying to make peace with the finality of death.
Departures is a story of different fates that lead to where people don’t really expect. Diago eventually becomes an encoffiner in his hometown. The boss and the secretary also have their fates to work there. Although death scares away many including his wife, Diago doesn’t give up what he thinks normal and right to prepare the dead for eternity. Diago sees the beauty of the finality of death, deepening his understanding of death and life. Diago challenges his wife and the community to look at death in a different way and people slowly see what he means. People find peace, beauty and happiness in the ceremony and change. However, for Diago there is one thing left he needs to reconcile with, that is, his father. Suddenly he hears the news that his father died alone in a harbor. He instantly resists not seeing him, but he gathers his mind and goes with his wife. It is a true catharsis for him to prepare the dead body of his father and he finds salvation there.
I heard Departures on the radio a couple of month ago. The story triggered me and suddenly it comes out near by my dorm. After watching it, I find many implications for me. Because I am a priest who talks about death and life, presides the funeral mass, meets the family of deceased, it is my story. I ask myself if I truly celebrate the funeral with calmness, precision and gentle affection, if I touch the hearts of the family grieving, if I prepare all to see eternity through the celebration. Death is another name of life as a man says in the movie, “I have often thought that death is a gateway. We go through it and move to the next thing! Death is a gate.”
Departures is blessing to see because it is delightful and sensitive journey into a new perspective on death and life and a beautiful look at a sacred part of Japan’s cultural heritage. It is no doubt how Departures got Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language Film of the year.