Winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, Japanese film Departures is a character study of a man who finds...
Winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, Japanese film Departures is a character study of a man who finds fulfilment and a depth of human connection in the most unlikely profession.
Daigo (Masahiro), a cellist, is laid off from his orchestra and moves with his wife back to his small hometown where the living is cheaper. Thinking he’s applying for a job at a travel agency he finds he’s being interviewed for work with departures of a more permanent nature – as an undertaker’s assistant. Little by little he warms to his new profession, endowing the elaborate funeral ceremonies with grace and humanity. [Source: NZ International Film Festival]
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80 %108 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® rating
92 %52,010 reviewsAudience score rating
"TV scribe Kundo Koyama's first bigscreen script peppers the proceedings with rich character detail and near-screwball interludes that shouldn't fit but somehow do."
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Variety
Variety"Overlong, predictable in its plotting and utterly banal in its blending of comic whimsy and melodramatic pathos."
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The New York Times
The New York Times"The movie is uncommonly absorbing."
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Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert"To suggest that Departures could not have been made outside Japan is a tad simplistic, but it is unlikely. Perhaps in the hustle and bustle of contemporary Japan, achieving serenity through the snail's pace of a slowly evolving story is refreshing. It certainly is to these eyes."
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Otago Daily Times
Otago Daily Times"Sentimental and formulaic but polished and affecting."
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New Zealand Herald
New Zealand Herald"The film manages to be anything but dark; whimsy and sweet irony are laced throughout, a warmhearted blend that turned it into the surprise winner of 2008's Oscar for foreign-language film."
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Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times"Yojiro Takita, who directed enduring commercial hits like "The Ying Yang Master" and "The Yen Family," has made a popular gem -- thematically respectable, technically hard to fault, artfully scripted to entertain and touch."
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Hollywood Reporter
Hollywood ReporterDepartures (Okuribito) | Details
Award winner- Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film, 2009.
- Runtime
- 131
- Genre
- Drama
- Country of origin
- Japan
