Okuribito / Departures
I've got a new favourite movie, and it's this year's Oscars for Best Foreign Film! Departures, also known in Japanese as Okuribito. I'm so glad an Asian film took home the Best Foreign Film for the Oscars this year, I think Asian films have a kind of sensitivity and perceptiveness to the environment that Western films have rarely achieved. A lot more thought seems to be put into Asian films, especially Japanese films, in which the angles, soundtrack and setting give the audience a lot more to ponder about than going through the motion of having mandatory angle changes because "the audience will fall asleep after 3 seconds if no new angle is adopted".
The movie essentially deals with the art of casketing (i.e. preparation of a body before its burial/cremation) and offers a view on the normalcy of death; that death is not something to be feared, but that it will and does happen eventually. I especially love how it offers the view that after a person dies, he/she is not simply a corpse, but that he/she was once a living person, and how through the process of casketing (within Japanese culture), their loved ones express their love towards the deceased. I think very often in our own culture, a corpse is simply like an item, we discount the fact that this person has once lived and has impacted the lives of people around them in some way or another.
Another plus point about this movie is its soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi (who also did Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea). Composed of mostly piano, cello instrumentations, it serves as an excellent soundtrack. It is impossible to divorce it from the film; the film would seem weird without its music.
I was particularly impressed with the director's sensitivity to the context of the shot by which it is taken, in regards to his choice of the insertion of silence for a scene. Sometimes, silence speaks a lot more than if the film was flooded with soundtrack, and Departures achieves this beautifully.
Acting wise, I was pleasantly surprised to see Ryoko Hirosue (who I've seen act in Japanese Dramas since young) and Masahiro Motoki (the previous face of GATSBY before Takuya Kimura took over) in it. As with the rest of the cast, the acting itself is sensitive, convincable and if not, just pure brilliant. I think roles that don't require extreme emotions are the toughest to act, because it's easy to peak your anger or sadness, but to sustain one that has numerous subliminal emotions and yet captivate the audience's attention, now that's excellent acting. They truly bring to life the whole story.
4.9/5 stars! (The -0.1 comes from the fact that there's this one scene which I felt didn't fit in well, which was a scene of Masahiro Motoki playing the cello against a background of scenic mountains) All in all still, I strongly recommend you go watch it! It's so good, I watched it twice in the cinema! It's heartfelt and very touching. Many people left the cinema with tears in their eyes, and I think, with a new profound perspective on death/life. :)