Featured Audience Ratings

• Universal D

  
  A musician/cultural sophisticate wannabe is shocked when hired to regularly participate in the traditional though frowned upon Japanese preparation for departure ceremony but slowly comes to find humanity in the highly orchestrated rituals of the process. A well done work and very… More
  A musician/cultural sophisticate wannabe is shocked when hired to regularly participate in the traditional though frowned upon Japanese preparation for departure ceremony but slowly comes to find humanity in the highly orchestrated rituals of the process. A well done work and very engaging, altho often as obvious as all hell. I personally found the old timer's (Yamazaki) version of the process more poetic.

• familiar s

  
  Here's a good mixture of emotions, comedy and drama (could as well have served as a thriller had they thrown in some elements!!! JK) that strikes a chord with your heart and makes you chuckle occasionally. But unlike some have experienced, I didn't come across a sequence… More
  Here's a good mixture of emotions, comedy and drama (could as well have served as a thriller had they thrown in some elements!!! JK) that strikes a chord with your heart and makes you chuckle occasionally. But unlike some have experienced, I didn't come across a sequence worth shredding a tear. The duration could easily have been trimmed without affecting the quality of the movie. Reducing the number of encoffining ceremonies wouldn't have affected the significance of the movie or its title in my opinion. The movie left two important situations unexplained/incomplete, all the more for those who need everything spelled out to them!!! I wish the timing was rather allocated to elaborote those matters rather than showing the numerous encoffining procedures. Most disappointing was the sequence towards the end. Either the makers shouldn't have touched that topic (It could have been omitted. That wouldn't have been great, but I'd prefer omission to going for it given the way they did it.), but since they did, I wish they'd given it a decent shape. Except for those minute complaints, I find the movie fit to watch and enjoy. And if you don't mind exaggeration, it's a marvelous family drama not to be missed. The journey of the self-acclaimed loser deserves a watch. TIP: If you don't feel well and feel like throwing up, postpone viewing it for the time being. See if you can get anything else for time pass. Not that it's any hardcore, but at such times, even the least gross scene tend to be harmful. Good for you if it doesn't apply to you.

• Jan Marc M

  
  On the premise that life is beautiful and death can be so beautiful, Departures lives on a story of heartfelt traditional Japanese casketing ceremony boasting metaphors and depth with strikes of wit and humor. Fascinating and moving, the masterful performances, beautiful… More
  On the premise that life is beautiful and death can be so beautiful, Departures lives on a story of heartfelt traditional Japanese casketing ceremony boasting metaphors and depth with strikes of wit and humor. Fascinating and moving, the masterful performances, beautiful cinematography, and haunting musical score is none but an ode to beauty and perfection.

• Jennifer X

  
  Such an understated, beautifully rendered movie. It made me cry, multiple times.

• Cynthia S

  
  Slow paced, but beautiful and moving. Wonderful actors. Wonderful script.

• Gordon A

  
  Sweet if a bit too saccharine for my tastes and there are bouts of histrionic acting which seemed out of place to my western eyes. The melodrama is milked by an intrusive score as well at times. The encoffinement scenes are transfixing and it is a shame we don't show our dead the… More
  Sweet if a bit too saccharine for my tastes and there are bouts of histrionic acting which seemed out of place to my western eyes. The melodrama is milked by an intrusive score as well at times. The encoffinement scenes are transfixing and it is a shame we don't show our dead the same tenderness and respect.

• Carlos M

  
  A delicate, sensitive film with a delightful sense of humor and a haunting score, a sincere ode to beauty, of life and death, that speaks directly to the emotions, it feels quite impossible not to be moved by this beautiful masterpiece.

• Lanning :

  
  Absolutely beautiful. Mahalo, Ira, for the recommendation. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I do not like the Best Foreign Film category of the Oscars. I think any worthy film, regardless of what country it comes from, should be eligible for nomination in the… More
  Absolutely beautiful. Mahalo, Ira, for the recommendation. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I do not like the Best Foreign Film category of the Oscars. I think any worthy film, regardless of what country it comes from, should be eligible for nomination in the Best Film category. This one surely could have contended equally with <i>Slumdog Millionaire, Benjamin Button,</i> and the others. <p> A great piece of writing centered around the vocation of encoffining, the preparation of the body for cremation, this film not only ponders the mystery of death, but it also sheds light on all sorts of familial relationships, keying on the main character's issues with his absent father. It's a wonderful cast working under superior direction. You can absolutely tell that everyone involved is committed to a first-class production. <p> Finally, a word about Tsutomu Yamazaki. I had just seen him recently in <i>The Ramen Girl,</i> and if you've ever seen <i>Tampopo</i>, then you'll really get a feel for his versatility as an actor seeing this. That would be a great triple feature: <i>Tampopo</i>, followed by <i>The Ramen Girl</i>, with <i>Departures</i> rounding out the evening. It's your very own mini Tsutomu Yamazaki film festival : )

• Sanjaya &

  
  A very beautiful movie from Yojiro Takita.. He made a great movie about life, and thing that connected between life and death with this job who delivers soul from the death into the world after death... Masahiro Motoki himself portrait a great encoffiner and a cellist too, I wonder if… More
  A very beautiful movie from Yojiro Takita.. He made a great movie about life, and thing that connected between life and death with this job who delivers soul from the death into the world after death... Masahiro Motoki himself portrait a great encoffiner and a cellist too, I wonder if he really an actor or just a pro who becomes an actor... He really brings the beauty of what encoffiner do, while the other people still look this job as a 'tainted' and ashamed job... The other cast did a really great job too, like Tsutomo Yamazaki, Ryoko Hirosuke, and Kimiko Yo... Another thing I can say is this is the best Japanese and probably Asian movies I've ever seen... With a 10 wins of 13 nominations in Awards of the Japanese Academy, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Screenplay, this movie also won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Films... What an impressive note for this movie, I totally recommend it for you, all the audiences...

• Saskia D

  
  This is how I like my movies, a perfect blend of humour and drama. And enough room for your own reflections while watching it. Beautiful, a definite must see!!! Personally the best movie of 2009! <div style="width:600px;"><a… More
  This is how I like my movies, a perfect blend of humour and drama. And enough room for your own reflections while watching it. Beautiful, a definite must see!!! Personally the best movie of 2009! <div style="width:600px;"><a href="http://www.flixster.com/photos/okuribito-departures-11882685"><img src="http://content7.flixster.com/photo/11/88/26/11882685_ori.jpg" border="0"/></a><div style="text-align:center;font-size:10px;"><a href="http://www.flixster.com">

• Wahida K

  
  The gift of last memories

• Lorenzo v

  
  <i>"The gift of last memories"</i> A newly unemployed cellist takes a job preparing the dead for funerals. <center><font size=+2 face="Century Schoolbook"><b><u>REVIEW</u></b></font></center> Fixating… More
  <i>"The gift of last memories"</i> A newly unemployed cellist takes a job preparing the dead for funerals. <center><font size=+2 face="Century Schoolbook"><b><u>REVIEW</u></b></font></center> Fixating itself on the pretext of death as a strong stigma to the Japanese rather than on the necrophiliac titillation possessed by those outside this particular societal circle, "Departures" approaches this issue with credible poignancy made more relevant when seen as a mitigation by director Yojiro Takita and screenwriter Kundo Koyama to a prevailing Eastern taboo. Although slightly undercut by an ultimately predictable script, Japan's Oscar-winning entry for this year's foreign-language film category is thoughtfully expressive, portraying a morbidly incriminating profession with dignified grace. Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) is a cellist for a symphony orchestra which disbands after a performance for failing to gather audiences. Having no job, he and his wife Mika (Ryoko Hirosue) move to his hometown in his deceased mother's house where, upon answering a help-wanted ad he mistakes for a travel agency, he ends up as "encoffiner"-in-training, helping his boss Sasaki (Tsutomu Yamazaki) perform a set of ceremonial rites for the dead before cremation. Aware of the social demonizing of such job, he lies to his wife about it until she learns of it anyway and pleads that he finds a "normal job," an appeal he finds tough when he increasingly develops a meticulous fondness for his work. Takita's charming and ultimately touching apologetic on mortality charts the disorderliness arising from an individual's social circle while he pursues his sense of purpose, with the titular itinerary suggesting more than the moribund ritual the film's protagonist is subjected to. Thus, it also becomes a plaintive meditation on Daigo's spiritual and moral development as he attends to the various abandonment issues that haunt him (a father who ran off when he was young and a wife that stigmatizes him for his newly found "filthy" career). Ultimately, "Departures" is as much a story of atonement as it is about dealing with mortality; that in order to fully embrace one's existence, it is necessary to cope with death -- both literally and figuratively -- while nurturing the bonds that exist among those who still live.

• Emily A

  
  This is a really nice, very very Japanese movie. I was so glad that I brought my mum. The story is fairly simple, but the great acting, writing and backstories add new depths and dimensions to this film. This film will leave you with a series of really poignant snapshots: the handfeel… More
  This is a really nice, very very Japanese movie. I was so glad that I brought my mum. The story is fairly simple, but the great acting, writing and backstories add new depths and dimensions to this film. This film will leave you with a series of really poignant snapshots: the handfeel of a stone reminding people of each other, chowing down on fried chicken after a funeral, playing dead for an instructional video... It surprised me how often this movie was very funny. It was as often extremely touching, since it didn't shy away from showing grieving people at thier most vulnerable. Every funeral shown is very different, and I quite enjoyed seeing so many glimses at individual and personal reactions. They all looked very genuine, which added so much to the film. In the end though, Departures isn't about the funerals themselves, but about Daigo's own adjustment to his new profession. He's a great character to anchor the film : at times funny, at times hauntingly tragic and always supportive of his wife, trying to shelter her from the ugly reality of what he's gotten a job doing. It also looked to me like a real snapshot not just of Japanese funerary customs but of Japanese culture in general, since death kind of informs all life. A very sweet, authentic-feeling film. I am so glad to have seen it.

• Rubia Carolina .

  
  What about it?! I got really disappointed and surprised. Surprised with the so many awards this movie got and with the so high positive public reception. Well, not that surprised anymore now that I just discovered it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year. Bien… More
  What about it?! I got really disappointed and surprised. Surprised with the so many awards this movie got and with the so high positive public reception. Well, not that surprised anymore now that I just discovered it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year. Bien sûr!!! Nothing but a Japanese melodrama with expected situations and a bad actor that probably likes Jim Carrey, considering his silly (and forced) face expressions. <br> <br>

• William D

  
  "Departures" is a low-budget Japanese film that provides a thoughtful but overly sentimental meditation on life and death. If it were in English, this would be a perfect film for the Lifetime channel. It reeks of television. I'm quite shocked that it won the Oscar for… More
  "Departures" is a low-budget Japanese film that provides a thoughtful but overly sentimental meditation on life and death. If it were in English, this would be a perfect film for the Lifetime channel. It reeks of television. I'm quite shocked that it won the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film of 2008. The competition in the Foreign category must have been especially poor this past year (as was the competition in the Best Picture category). The lead character in "Departures" is a cello player thrown adrift when his professional orchestra disbands. He and his perky, child-like wife leave Tokyo and move to the remote village where he grew up. Having no job skills, he has significant difficulty finding a path but ends up taking a job preparing bodies for cremation, a somber ritual of cleansing that is performed in the funeral home in front of the family. In not too long a time, he throws himself into his work with the same artistic passion he brought to his musical life. For some reason, working with the dead is considered "unclean" in proper Japanese society, so he lies to his wife about his new vocation. He is so embarrassed about his profession, it is as if he's working in a brothel. Despite his misgivings, the man takes to the work very well. He develops such a respectful way of performing the ritual that he reduces most families to tears. Most bow to him afterward with profound thanks. They seem to revere him, despite the fact that he is performing taboo work -- the way perhaps a prostitute is sometimes perceived as saintly and full of love. Madonna/whore, if you will. The truth eventually gets back to his wife, and a family crisis ensues. Meanwhile, a subplot continues regarding the man's father. There are also some lovely touches concerning the family-like bonds that develop between the man and his coworkers. They are a saintly group of outcasts with distinctive, vivid personalities. The emotional crescendo at the end of the film will surely reduce you to tears, but it is so sentimental that you will probably feel a bit unclean after you wipe away the tears. It has Hallmark greeting card written all over it. If "Departures" weren't such a weepie and weren't stylized so completely as a TV movie, it could have been a significant work of art. The director must take responsibility for cheapening it at every turn. His crass hand is, alas, visible in every scene.

• Luke B

  
  Fully deserving of it's Academy Award. Departures begins with an original, funny and moving scene. It captures the perfect tone of the film and also sums up the awkward work these men undertake. It soon turns into a character study of a man who gives up his dream and stumbles… More
  Fully deserving of it's Academy Award. Departures begins with an original, funny and moving scene. It captures the perfect tone of the film and also sums up the awkward work these men undertake. It soon turns into a character study of a man who gives up his dream and stumbles into a strange line of work. The beautiful thing about Departures, is seeing how the men are looked down upon for their work, often criticised for profiting from death. However once they have worked their magic people change and see loved ones in a new light. The man whom finally accepts his cross dressing son only after he has passed is particularly affecting. The wonderful symbolism and music also make this film stand out. They are fantastic on their own and also add to the layers of this film. There are moments when the film begins to drag and also the end accidentally becomes too sentimental, but this is a wonderful film that will speak to all kinds of viewers.

• JY S

  
  <i>Departures</i> is a drama that uses the concept of "death" and "undertakers" as its driving points and I give props to the director, Yojiro Takita, for creating something successful out of this. This film has gotten recognition at multiple film… More
  <i>Departures</i> is a drama that uses the concept of "death" and "undertakers" as its driving points and I give props to the director, Yojiro Takita, for creating something successful out of this. This film has gotten recognition at multiple film festivals and it is easy to see why. If you like dramas that is.<p>This movie is a long and slow burn. When I say long I mean 10 minutes over 2 hours long. Believe me when I say that this is a straight up drama with no violence, action, or CG. The acting and storytelling are what get you through this. The first 40 minutes or so is great. There is a nice amount of humor that isn't overdone or forced. The reactions that the main character, Daigo, gives when encountering situations for the first time all seem natural and realistic. Gradually, the humor becomes really minimal and the next 90 minutes are dramatic and depressing. I guess this is appropriate for a film with multiple funeral scenes.</p><p>The last 90 minutes may be slow and serious, but that doesn't make this a bad movie. The storytelling is effective and so is the cinematography. There is a scene where a car is driving through the snow that is reminiscent of <i>Fargo</i>. <i>Departures</i> also uses an orchestrated soundtrack which works well with the setting and plot.</p><p>Masahiro Motoki does a nice job at leading this picture and Tsutomu Yamazaki is a great supporter. Ryoko Hirosue livens the film up a bit, at least for the first half, with her upbeat attitude, facial expressions, and her tone of voice. She really does counter balance the gloomy atmosphere that the rest of the film has.</p><p>I am not a huge fan of these slow burn dramas and it is the long haul and the dragging of the ending that really hurts, but I can honestly say that fans of these types of films will really enjoy this one. I, myself, don't regret watching this.

• Emmanuel T

  
  Daigo Kobayashi is very attatched to being a cellist in an ocherstra, which unfortunately has recently been dissolved. He now finds himself living unemployed, and looking for a job. He moves back into his old hometown with his loving wife to start a new life, with a new job. But… More
  Daigo Kobayashi is very attatched to being a cellist in an ocherstra, which unfortunately has recently been dissolved. He now finds himself living unemployed, and looking for a job. He moves back into his old hometown with his loving wife to start a new life, with a new job. But little does he know that his life is about to take him on a strange yet beautiful journey working as a funeral professional who prepares lifeless bodies for both burial and entrance to the next life. As dark as the plot might sound to be, this is actually a very touching film. It makes sure to bring joy into its main theme, "death." To bring great feelings into such a serious subject is hard to do, but this film sure does a great job on it. There are however, some gloomy moments in Departures but only when necessary. It seems as if this film knows a lot about human nature, and nature itself which makes it seem very realistic. From humor, to sadden, to hopes and dreams, to death, and so much more, these feelings are all balanced in such a great order that makes its viewing experience come alive. Departures really is a beautiful movie about life itself. Just life. Not religion and other's beliefs (even sometimes seeming like it), but life and nothing more.

• Mark A

  
  A very tender and moving tale of a young man who stumbles into the career he was destined to have. Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) loses his job as a symphony cellist when the orchestra folds and moves back home where he becomes a part of the funeral business. The job carries with it a heavy… More
  A very tender and moving tale of a young man who stumbles into the career he was destined to have. Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) loses his job as a symphony cellist when the orchestra folds and moves back home where he becomes a part of the funeral business. The job carries with it a heavy price as it is considered to render its practitioners unclean. The scenes of the ritual preparation of the body for being laid into the coffin were beautiful tableaux of grace and reverence for the departed. The story unfolds at a slow pace that serves the solemnity of the subject, and yet, all is not somber as well placed lighter moments relieve the gloom. It is a bit predictable, but is so well presented that one easily forgives the film maker for not offering any surprises. The musical score is superb, the cinematography is lush, and the acting is superb. This viewer finds little to quibble over.

• Walter M

  
  In "Departures," Daigo(Masahiro Motoki) has finally attained his dream of playing in an orchestra, partially courtesy of an 18 million yen cello. But then, his world falls in when the orchestra is canceled due to a lack of interest. Luckily, his wife Mika(Ryoko Hirosue)… More
  In "Departures," Daigo(Masahiro Motoki) has finally attained his dream of playing in an orchestra, partially courtesy of an 18 million yen cello. But then, his world falls in when the orchestra is canceled due to a lack of interest. Luckily, his wife Mika(Ryoko Hirosue) does not kill him when she finds out about the cello which is sold as they move to his mother's house, uninhabited since she died two years' previously. Needing a job to eat, he answers an ad for what he thinks will be a travel agency, but instead turns out to be an encoffinment service. His first assignment for Mr. Sasaki(Tsutomu Yamazaki) is starring in a training video which he promises nobody will ever get to see. The setting for "Departures" is an intriguing one, especially considering the subject of death in Japan where there are elaborate rituals but nobody wants to get their hands dirty. However, that's as good as it gets since it is much too long. Instead of sticking to just one style, the movie is all over the place with gratuitous sentimentality and inappropriate humor(I know it is always possible you might have missed something but please respect the dead). That's certainly not to mention the daddy issues that creep in. At this point, I have to ascribe the movie's following to succumbing to a general guilt trip about not being kind to relatives.(Think of me what you will but this kind of maudlin sentiment I have long been immune to.) So, say what you have to say while you can, since a funeral is much too late.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings