Daigo, a cellist, has lost his job after his orchestra folded. Out of options (the market for cellists being rather saturated), he and his wife move to his hometown and the house his mother left him. Once there, Daigo finds work as an apprentice to a dresser of the dead. A dresser isn’t an undertaker. Rather, he conducts the ceremonial preparation of the body for burial, an exacting, honorable, and precise function for which his years of disciplined practice as a musician has readied him.
But life in the death business has its challenges. It’s socially unacceptable to all but those who, through the loss of a loved one, have benefitted from seeing it done well. Aspects of it are difficult and disgusting. And what musician has mortician in mind as a viable backup plan? For that matter, what musician’s wife has mortician’s wife in mind as a viable backup plan?
DEPARTURES, then, uses Daigo’s journey as an exploration of the nature of dignity, of love, of duty. The credit for its success goes, in no small part, to Masahiro Motoki, the actor who plays him. He’s very Japanese, meaning that he’s a contained man who would view the American practice of wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve with horror. But Motoki brings us into his character’s desperation, his shame, and his ultimate fulfillment with wit and honor.
This is a marvelous story, one well worth your time. I give it my unqualified recommendation.
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