One my goals with this Subtitles Subversives series is to examine films that are not only excellent but give insight into a culture that you and I might not otherwise have. Something powerful that takes us far away from Hollywood and its studios. Okuribito is just such a film. Titled “Departures” for western audiences Okuribito is a film about life disguising itself as a film about death.
The movie follows Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) as he gives up his dream of being cellist and returns to his hometown with his wife. Needing to find work Daigo answers an ad for NK Agent thinking it to be a travel agency of some kind. Instead he discovers that they work with departures of a more solemn nature. In many cultures working with the dead is an honored position but in Japanese culture there are deeply engrained taboos concerning the dead and those who deal with them. The film’s conflicts arise from Daigo and those around him coming to grips with those taboos and his new profession.
Okuribito is beautifully filmed and the actors’ performances are subdued but powerful. The subject matter is treated with the appropriate amount of respect and reverence. As you would expect from a film featuring a cellist as the main character the soundtrack is both beautiful and classical naturally weaving itself into the body of the film. I do wonder if something might be lost in translation however. Since western audiences do not have some of the same taboos concerning the dead the edginess that comes from tackling those taboos head on is not a part of the western audience’s experience. For example in America “Departures” was seen as a simple low burn indie drama that was very nice while in Japan movie theaters almost didn’t show Okuribito because of its subject matter.
One of the critical complaints upon Okuribito’s release was its over-sentimentality and its predictability. Perhaps for critics and hardened cinephiles this is a problem but personally I don’t believe that all movies need to surprise us nor do I necessarily agree that all sentimentality is over-sentimentality. Some times a simple story is the more elegant way to handle material of such raw emotional depth. This film does what it set out to do and when it is over you cannot help but reflect on the nature of life and death and those of your own loved ones who have passed on.
In the end Okuribito is a Japanese movie about Japanese culture made by a Japanese director that speaks to universal themes that move us all. This is a film that will never enter the conversation of the greatest ever but it can be enjoyed by all. And that is quite an accomplishment.