Yojiro Takita’s Departures follows Daigo, a cellist whose orchestra disbands, prompting him to return to his rural hometown and stumble into a new career as a nokanshi, a practitioner of the traditional Japanese ritual of preparing the dead for cremation. The film charts his journey from reluctance and shame to profound respect for a profession that his wife, friends, and community view with disgust.
The film won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, surprising many who hadn’t heard of it, and found devoted audiences worldwide drawn to its gentle treatment of mortality.
The Ritual and Its Beauty
The preparation ceremonies are filmed with a reverence that transforms what might be morbid into something truly beautiful. Takita captures the precise, graceful movements of the nokanshi’s work, the careful washing, dressing, and arrangement of the deceased, as a form of art. The rituals become the film’s most powerful scenes, each ceremony revealing something about the person being honored and the family left behind.
Masahiro Motoki’s performance as Daigo carries the film with a quiet evolution from discomfort to devotion. He plays Daigo’s initial revulsion at his new job without exaggeration, and his gradual appreciation for the work’s meaning unfolds naturally through accumulated experience rather than a single moment of revelation.
Tsutomu Yamazaki’s mentor figure, the experienced undertaker who hires Daigo, provides warmth and wisdom without becoming a cliche. His dry humor and deep respect for the deceased create a model of professionalism that Daigo absorbs through observation rather than instruction.
The film’s use of cello music connects Daigo’s two vocations. Both playing music and preparing the dead are forms of service that require technical skill applied with emotional sensitivity, and the film draws this parallel without overstatement.
The rural Japanese setting adds beauty and cultural specificity. The changing seasons mirror Daigo’s emotional development, and the small-town dynamics provide both obstacles and community in equal measure.
The Sentimental Current
The film occasionally tips into sentimentality that some viewers found excessive. The emotional manipulation is gentle rather than aggressive, but certain sequences, particularly those involving Daigo’s absent father, push toward resolution that feels too neat for the complexity of the emotions involved.
The wife’s reaction to Daigo’s new career, while culturally grounded in Japanese attitudes toward death-related work, can feel overdrawn to Western audiences. Her extended rejection of his profession creates conflict that some found repetitive.
The film’s pacing includes stretches where the emotional register stays at one level for too long, creating a gentle monotony that patient viewers will weather but others may find wearing.
The subplot involving Daigo’s relationship with his estranged father follows a predictable arc that contrasts with the freshness of the film’s central premise. The resolution, while emotionally effective, relies on coincidence that strains credibility.
What the Dead Teach the Living
Departures argues that confronting death honestly is not a morbid pursuit but a path to deeper appreciation of life. Each ceremony Daigo performs teaches him something about love, regret, and the connections that persist beyond death. The film suggests that the people who care for the dead occupy a position of unique privilege, witnessing the rawness of grief and the beauty of farewell in their most concentrated forms.
Should You Watch Departures?
If you’re drawn to films that find profound meaning in unlikely subjects, Departures offers a gentle, moving exploration of mortality that avoids both sentimentality and morbidity for most of its runtime. The central performances are excellent, the ritual scenes are truly beautiful, and the film’s emotional payoff, while occasionally overworked, earns its tears through accumulated detail rather than cheap manipulation. Those who prefer sharper-edged filmmaking may find the approach too soft, but viewers open to its warmth will find a film that changes how they think about death and the people who tend to the dead.
The Verdict on Departures
Departures succeeds by taking a subject most people prefer not to think about and finding in it a profound source of meaning and beauty. Motoki’s performance evolves with grace, the ritual scenes achieve a visual poetry that justifies the film’s reputation, and the emotional core, the idea that caring for the dead is a form of love, resonates with universal force. It’s a film about endings that somehow leaves you feeling more alive.