Classic Tuesdays, the monthly presentation by the National Gallery opens the year with Yojiro Takita’s Departures next week.
According to a press release from the gallery, the elegance and balance of line, volume and space that characterize so much of Japanese design are present in almost every frame of this film, enhanced by specially composed music by Joe Hishaishi. The film won the 2009 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and numerous other awards for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor and for other cast members and technical designers, including ten from the Japan Academy Prize Awards, the Best Asian Film award at the Hong Kong Film Awards, the Asian Film Award and Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Actor, the Palm Springs International Film Festival Audience Award for Best Narrative Film, and the Montreal International Film Festival’s Prix des Amériques.
In Departures, deadpan comedy and emotional drama combine to tell the story of Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) a cellist in a Tokyo orchestra who loses his job and is forced to return to his hometown to live. Eager for work he unwittingly accepts a job as a ‘nokanshi’, someone who prepares the dead for cremation and burial. His boss, chain smoking and unflappable, urges him to give it a try, and after initial consternation and worse, Daigo slowly begins to appreciate the demands and the value of his job, though he keeps it a secret from his wife (Ryoko Hirosue) and his friends.
When they do find out the truth they are disdainful and reject him, but Daigo persists in his work, and in his respectful engagement with the departed and their families, he begins to find a contentment that had long evaded him. His wife returns to him with news even as sudden events reveal to her and his friends the significance of these rituals of life and death and his dedication to them, and allow Daigo to set to rest – literally – a painful part of his early life that had burdened him.
The film’s running time is 2 hours 11 minutes and the public is cordially invited to attend this event at Castellani House, Vlissengen Road. Admission is free.
