Departure Movie Reaction

Departures was a movie showed the struggles of a young man who was unable to uphold his family on what he had believed to be his dream, playing the cello. He finds a new job dealing with the departed, and shows his various struggles. Throughout this movie, you could clearly see Japanese culture and ideas. A lot of the ideas that were shown revolve around Japanese ideas of death, understandable due to the story of the movie.

                One thing that I noticed was very prevalent was a general dislike and shame associated with the job of cleaning the bodies of those who passed away. This seemed to be related to the Japanese belief of Shinto, where death is seen as very impure and isn’t something that humans are able to get rid of. This was shown through his old family friend ignoring him and even his wife leaving him for a short time. This greatly surprised me, especially with how grateful people were afterwards. I believe that is when their emotions for the departed override their traditional beliefs. This is also shown from his original reaction to the job. The idea of dealing with the dead was scary to him, but he truly needed the money.

                Another thing I saw in the film was the idea of uchi and soto in a way, along with tatemae and honne. A good example I can think of was how his wife originally reacted to him giving up his dream and having to move back to his mother’s house. She seemed so cheerful and for it. But later she reveals that she was really upset that he was giving up his dream and had to move home. She was using tatemae, not her true feelings but putting on a face, so that he wouldn't be upset that she didn't want to move or for him to give up his dream. This also surprised me, because how she acted when he said they would have to move back, I was completely convinced that she truly wanted to move back to his mother’s house.

Departure was a good movie that I enjoyed watching. It was interesting to see how everyone reacted to his job of washing the dead so strongly, because it would have a much different reaction here. Seeing the different culture through the movie allowed to see the ideas we learn in class in action, and I enjoyed seeing it.