Departures

DEPARTURES is Yojiro Takita's deeply moving and irreverently amusing meditation on love, acceptance and coping with loss. Winner of an Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film, DEPARTURES has also received 13 Japan Academy Prize Award (Japanese Academy Award) nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor.

DEPARTURES centers on Daigo (Masahiro Motoki), a cellist who suddenly becomes jobless when his symphony orchestra in Tokyo disbands. Giving up on his dream of being a heralded performer, Daigo moves back to his close-knit home town with wife Mika (Ryoko Hirosue) to reevaluate his life while staying in his late mother’s home. After answering a help wanted ad with hopes of an exciting job in tourism, he instead finds himself offered a position at a company specializing in "encoffinments," the ancient Japanese art of preparing a corpse for cremation in front of the bereaved. Sasaki (Tsutomu Yamazaki), the surly sage of an owner, convinces Daigo to take the job after dangling a large salary in front of him. In spite of the strange prospect of bathing, dressing and grooming the dead, along with fearing the reactions of his wife and the outside world, Daigo discovers a renewed joy for living through learning to care for the grieving and the deceased and unwittingly begins a journey of reconciliation with his past. The comically caustic Sasaki serves as Daigo's anchor and stalwart advisor, passing the knowledge of a time-honored tradition to a new generation along with respect for the unifying finality of departure.

Over a career spanning more than two decades, writer-director Yojiro Takita has perfected the art of blending comedy with complex subject matter, earning him Japan's Blue Ribbon Award for MADE IN JAPAN as well as a nomination for the Japan Academy Prize Award for Best Direction and Best Film. Takita's big-screen debut was the controversial and darkly comedic COMIC MAGAZINE followed by THE YEN FAMILY and THE TROPICAL PEOPLE. Most recently he has focused on epic fantasy films like ASHURA, WHEN THE LAST SWORD IS DRAWN, ONMYOJI: THE YIN YANG MASTER and ONMYOJI 2. Yamazaki, who is best known in the US for his lead role in TAMPOPO, is the perfect foil to Japanese heartthrob, Motoki.

“TV scribe Kundo Koyama's first big-screen script peppers the proceedings with rich character detail and near-screwball interludes that shouldn't fit but somehow do.” (Eddie Cockrell, Variety)

“Departures is built for simplicity, and, if nothing else, the appeal to decency and integrity of this sweetly old-fashioned tale make it a must for Bernie Madoff's prison Netflix queue.” (Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly)

"An intriguing, candid central character - Berkowitz - makes Sex Positive shine." (Jonathan Roche, Metrosource)
GRAND JURY PRIZE WINNER – L.A. Outfest

“The film is profoundly affecting, thanks to a well-written story, rich characters and superlative acting.” (Claudia Puig, USA Today)

ACADEMY AWARD® WINNER - BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

WINNER - 10 JAPAN ACADEMY PRIZE AWARDS

Best Picture – Okuribito (Departures)
Best Director - Yojiro Takita - Director
Best Leading Actor - Masahiro Motoki (Daigo)
Best Supporting Actor - Tsutomu Yamazaki (Sasaki)
Best Supporting Actress Kimiko Yo (Kamimura Yuriko)
Best Screenplay – Kundo Koyama
Best Lighting - Hitoshi Takaya
Best Sound Recording: Satoru Ozaki
Best Editing - Akimasa Kawashima
Best Cinematography - Takeshi Hamada

“TV scribe Kundo Koyama's first big-screen script peppers the proceedings with rich character detail and near-screwball interludes that shouldn't fit but somehow do.” (Eddie Cockrell, Variety)