Departures---Japanese film

Once again, I was drawn to a film made outside of Hollywood, this time, a touching film from Japan and if one were to read the brief summary, without the information that it was the Best Foreign Film in 2009, you would never have picked up the film. But I did, and though it was slow to begin with, I gradually was pulled into the film, the characters, the beauty and ritual of Buddhist or Japanese ways of dealing with the death of a loved on. The main character, Daigo, realizes early in the film that his desire to play the cello will never be fulfilled, in fact, it may not have really ever been his desire. He returns to his village with his new wife and falls into a job as a morticians apprentice, though the word 'mortician' in no way describes the role he plays in the film Here the mortician mostly deals with the preparing of the body for burial, usually as the family watches. he applies make up, slowly and lovingly washes the limbs, the hands, in fact, the body, wraps it in a gown, and in most ways, earns the respect and thanks of the bereaved family. At first, Daigo is put off by the role, as is his wife and friends. Slowly, he begins to see the need and fulfillment in helping those who are in mourning. Though he wife leaves him, she returns and has an epiphany when he buries his old friend's mother, a woman who runs a bath and knew him when he was young. His wife, watching his loving and caring way with this woman's body, understands finally the necessary role her husband plays in the lives of those around him. Mixed with this Micawber vocation, the movie is often comic, especially as Daigo learns about his profession. Ultimately, though, he entwines life and death, memory and time, as he is, at the end, reconciled with his father, someone who deserted the boy when he was six, yet as he finds out, never really forgot him. A wonderful film, a great song track, and moving performances by the entire cast. Great films are hard to define, even explain, and this one fits that ambiguity.