Departures (Okuribito-A Person Who Sends You On)

I don't go to many movies but this Japanese language film (with English subtitles) got such great recommendations from several people that we decided to go along with my aunt and uncle.

The movie is called Departures. It's the story of a young man who "becomes a "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer," a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life." (wikipedia) It was the 2009 Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film winner.

To be perfectly honest my mother had mentioned it to me before as a movie she'd like to see but I was rather squeamish thinking this was going to be a morbid, dismal...SAD movie and I just don't like sad movies.

However, I came out of this movie uplifted. The actor did an incredible job of making the task of "cleansing" a body for the coffin a beautiful ballet of emotional farewell that families are granted. After watching this movie I marveled at the beauty of how the departed could be sent away with such dignity and grace.

I wish everybody could see this movie. It's one of those movies that you don't get irritated at because the characters acted stupidly or nonsensically. It made sense. People were real. It was just so beautiful. The beauty of this film is still with me. When the movie ended and the credits started rolling, nobody left the theatre. We were transfixed by the elegance of what we were seeing.

If you get a chance, please go and see it.... not with kids because there are a few raw moments. Nothing is really shown, there's just a suggestion to let you know what happened but it's enough.

I don't make a whole lot of movie or book recommendations but I really wanted to share this one.