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Departures is a japonais film of genre Drama directed by Yōjirō Takita released in USA on 13 september 2008 with Masahiro Motoki

Departures (2008)

Okuribito

Departures
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Released in USA 13 september 2008
Length 2h11
Directed by
OriginJapon
Genres Drama,    Musical theatre,    Musical
Rating79% 3.998283.998283.998283.998283.99828

Departures (Japanese: おくりびと, Hepburn: Okuribito, "one who sends off") is a 2008 Japanese drama film directed by Yōjirō Takita and starring Masahiro Motoki, Ryōko Hirosue, and Tsutomu Yamazaki. Loosely based on Coffinman, a memoir by Shinmon Aoki, the film follows a young man who returns to his hometown after a failed career as a cellist and stumbles across work as a nōkanshi—a traditional Japanese ritual mortician. He is subjected to prejudice from those around him, including from his wife, because of strong social taboos against people who deal with death. Eventually he earns their respect and learns the importance of interpersonal connections through the beauty and dignity of his work.

The idea for Departures arose after Motoki, affected by having seen a funeral ceremony along the Ganges when travelling in India, read widely on the subject of death and came across Coffinman. He felt that the story would adapt well to film, and Departures was finished a decade later. Because of Japanese prejudices against those who handle the dead, distributors were reluctant to release it—until a surprise grand prize win at the Montreal World Film Festival in August 2008. The following month the film opened in Japan, where it went on to win the Academy Prize for Picture of the Year and become the year's highest-grossing domestic film. This success was topped in 2009, when it became the first Japanese production to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Departures received mixed to positive reviews, with aggregator Rotten Tomatoes indicating an 81% approval rating from 103 reviews. Critics praised the film's humour, the beauty of the encoffining ceremony, and the quality of the acting, but took issue with its predictability and overt sentimentality. Reviewers highlighted a variety of themes, but focused mainly on the humanity which death brings to the surface and how it strengthens family bonds. The success of Departures led to the establishment of tourist attractions at sites connected to the film and increased interest in encoffining ceremonies, as well as adaptation of the story for various media, including manga and a stage play.

Synopsis

Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) loses his job as a cellist when his orchestra is disbanded. He and his wife Mika (Ryōko Hirosue) move from Tokyo to his hometown in Yamagata, where they live in his childhood home that was left to him when his mother died two years earlier. It is fronted by a coffee shop that Daigo's father had operated before he ran off with a waitress when Daigo was six; since then the two have had no contact. Daigo feels hatred towards his father and guilt for not taking better care of his mother. He still keeps a "letter-stone"—a stone which is said to convey meaning through its texture—which his father had given him many years before.

Actors

Masahiro Motoki

(Daigo Kobayashi)
Ryōko Hirosue

(Mika Kobayashi)
Tsutomu Yamazaki

(Ikuei Sasaki)
Kimiko Yo

(Yuriko Kamimura)
Kazuko Yoshiyuki

(Tsuyako Yamashita)
Trailer of Departures

Bluray, DVD

Streaming / VOD

Source : Wikidata

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