fate, funerals and family.
that best sums up this redeeming gem from a country which has recently been making the news for the wrong reasons.
2010 oscar-winning foreign film, Departures (Okiribito)
when one of my class leaders passed me the dvd today in class telling me to watch it, i thought, okkk, another soppy japanese movie involving animals dying or lovers' reunions? cynicism aside, the last time i wept at an insipid jap movie contrived for tears, i swore never to touch anything other than their cutesy anime or morbidly disturbing horrors.
however i stood corrected by scene 2 of this film. i knew i was going to be riveted by the breathtaking cinematography of halcyon landscapes laced with impossibly gorgeous flora and fauna. such is the japan i've always dreamed of migrating to since visiting tokyo and osaka years ago.
what truly grabbed 2 hours of my undivided attention was the simple yet probable storyline of one man's coming to terms with his past and eventually reaching closure with it, through nothing short of the obvious vehicle of fate, something i personally believe overrides all our apparent decisions borne of free will.
before that i was incidentally reading an interview with an embalmer in today's papers, providing me with useful insight into the day in the life of someone in this line of work, and a prelude to this film itself, so much so i appreciated the under-rated role of a mortician a lot more clearly while watching the film. ok random but the timing couldn't be more bizarre.
anyway, i was especially moved by the stoic portrayal of the senior embalmer who like a surrogate father figure to the protagonist, gently leads the latter into understanding the significance of his craft, which is subliminally beautiful in its silent reverence and dignified ritual. let's just say you have to witness this to fully appreciate its poetry. and yes, once again, i wept buckets. sigh
i've also a renewed desire to spend my retiring years in the provincial parts of japan. i could just live off its salmon-endowed brooks and sake sashimi!
2010 oscar-winning foreign film, Departures (Okiribito)
when one of my class leaders passed me the dvd today in class telling me to watch it, i thought, okkk, another soppy japanese movie involving animals dying or lovers' reunions? cynicism aside, the last time i wept at an insipid jap movie contrived for tears, i swore never to touch anything other than their cutesy anime or morbidly disturbing horrors.
however i stood corrected by scene 2 of this film. i knew i was going to be riveted by the breathtaking cinematography of halcyon landscapes laced with impossibly gorgeous flora and fauna. such is the japan i've always dreamed of migrating to since visiting tokyo and osaka years ago.
what truly grabbed 2 hours of my undivided attention was the simple yet probable storyline of one man's coming to terms with his past and eventually reaching closure with it, through nothing short of the obvious vehicle of fate, something i personally believe overrides all our apparent decisions borne of free will.
before that i was incidentally reading an interview with an embalmer in today's papers, providing me with useful insight into the day in the life of someone in this line of work, and a prelude to this film itself, so much so i appreciated the under-rated role of a mortician a lot more clearly while watching the film. ok random but the timing couldn't be more bizarre.
anyway, i was especially moved by the stoic portrayal of the senior embalmer who like a surrogate father figure to the protagonist, gently leads the latter into understanding the significance of his craft, which is subliminally beautiful in its silent reverence and dignified ritual. let's just say you have to witness this to fully appreciate its poetry. and yes, once again, i wept buckets. sigh
i've also a renewed desire to spend my retiring years in the provincial parts of japan. i could just live off its salmon-endowed brooks and sake sashimi!