This is Benjamin

Is the Japanese film ‘Departures’ as good as everyone says?

December 27th, 2009 | benjamin

We watched Departures tonight and I would have enjoyed it if the gap between the film and its rave reviews hadn’t been so wide.

Mediocre cellist Daigo Kobayashi quits his musical career and moves back to the countryside of his youth along with his wife. With no other options, Kobayashi takes up work as an ‘Encoffineer’, a job that takes in both practical and ceremonial measures to repare bodies for the afterlife. Surprising himself (though not any half-intelligent audience) his new line of work becomes the catalyst for Kobayashi’s emotional transformation. By preparing others to move beyond life, Kobayashi gains the strength to face the traumas that are holding back his own.

Nicholas Barber in The Independent, for example, said ‘this heartfelt, unpretentious, slyly funny Japanese film is worth waiting for’ and it took the award for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards (although that means nothing to me) and a host of others.

Its not that what people say is wholly untrue. It is witty and at times quite touching. And Takeshi Hameda’s cinematography brings a sincerity and stillness that is a perfect frame for Departures’ moments of genuine, simple humour.

But at other moments Departures risks crossing over into sentimentality, even schmaltz. What really got on my nerves, though, was the character of Kobayashi’s wife who was not much more than a prop, skin deep, without the conflicts and desires that humanise a character. Perhaps the Japanese masters of electronics have invented smiling, sympathetic robots to accompany sensitive men on their emotional journeys.

These superficialities prevent Departures from approaching the cinematic meditations on death of a master like Akira Kurosawa, films like Ikiru or his finale Adadayo.

Despite the hype, Departures just isn’t that good.