Departures ****

Just this way, just this once, never again

This movie borders on exquisite. No small task for a movie that not only deals with death, but with the tradition of ceremonially preparing the dead in front of mourners before their bodies are placed in the coffin.

There is always a taboo about death. People who spend time with the dead are “creepy”. It is perhaps not surprising that that those immersed in taboo are true artists in Japan. The principle of Japanese aesthetics was once summed up as follows: just this way, just this once, never again. There is nothing more mortal than we mortals. Each of us is just the way we are, just this once, never again. In Departures when the dead are prepared for cremation it is a public ceremony, wherein those present get to see the most tender treatment carried out with the utmost respect on those who have fully demonstrated their mortality.

Our hero, Daigo, departs with his wife for his childhood home after losing his job as a cellist. This departure signifies the beginning of a journey that takes him out of his comfort zone and into a pretty unusual job as a “casketer” that brings him closer to himself and ultimately culminates in the rediscovery of a Father he has lost.

In the Iliad of Homer there are a number of occasions when the warriors address a fallen ally or enemy. Even though they may have breathed their last the conversation is prolonged by the living. So it happens even now those in mourning address a corpse. In Departures the “casketers” are those who give dignity to the dead and to their mourners in the final moments…those moments when we stare into the deepest absence.