‘Departures’ opens 2011 Japanese Film Festival

‘Departures,’ winner of the 2009 US Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, is a lyrical celebration of life and a quiet elegy on death. But the film is also a thoughtful tribute to the continuity of life that ineluctably comes after a person’s demise and its attendant rituals. ‘Departures’ brings to the fore the sensitive issue of death on two tiers. First, there is the physiological death of a human being. The film is a requiem of bereavement. Second, it is both a homage and lament about the slowly disintegrating social institutions in modern Japanese society. Assaulted on various fronts by industrial development and technology, they are slowly being rendered obsolete and inefficient, such that irreversible collapse is seen.

Directed by Yojiro Takita and written by Koyama Kundo, Departures (Okuribito in Japanese) opened the 2011 Japanese Film Festival last July 1. Now on its 13th year, the film fest was organized by the Japan Foundation–Manila together with the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines, Shangri-La Plaza, and the UP Film Institute. Departures features a powerful cast led by Masahiro Motoki (as Daigo Kobayashi), Ryoko Hirosue (as Mika, wife of Daigo), and Tsutomu Yamazaki (as chief ‘encoffiner’ and company owner Shoei Sasaki, Daigo’s boss). In the film, the imminent shutdown of a sento (communal bath) in the heart of a rural community to give way to a high-rise housing project is given as much importance as the death of the father of the central character, a cellist who later became an assistant ‘encoffiner’ due to an error. The sento was once a vital and vibrant institution in the Japanese social landscape. Among others, modern housing projects – complete with bathrooms, shower rooms, and laundry areas – contributed significantly to the ripping apart of the pre-war and immediate-postwar social landscapes, sociologists say. Nightly communal interaction while taking a bath in a sento was gradually banished, together with the substantial face-to-face human contacts that were once the glue that connected people living in traditional Japanese society. The central narrative revolves around a suddenly jobless cello player (Daigo) who returns to his hometown and finds himself employed in a company that handles ceremonial ‘encoffinating’ of the departed prior to cremation. A simple typographical error in a newspaper advertisement led Daigo to think that he was applying for a position in a “travel" agency. Shuji Takatori, director of Japan Foundation – Manila, said in his opening remarks: “There would be many things we could feel and cherish from this film such as life and death, love, landscape of countryside in Japan, Japanese regional languages - or dialects, in the countryside, beauty of the ‘encoffinating’ ceremony, and music." He requested the audience to pay special attention to the music of Departures, calling the score by musical director Joe Hisaishi as “very unique and special, partly because the hero is a cello player." The award-wining Hisaishi, who has directed music for over 60 films including Hayao Miyazaki’s animation film Spirited Away (2001) and Takeshi Kitano’s Hana-Bi (1997), composed many original cello ensemble pieces for Departures. The film has won at least eight other awards in various film festivals. The premiere showing of 'Departures' locally, which also signaled the start of the annual Philippine-Japan Friendship Month celebrations, featured a special performance by Renato Lucas, one of the country’s most important cellists, and pianist Naomi Sison of several musical scores from the movie. Japanese Ambassador Toshinao Urabe, quoting Martin Scorsese, said, “Now more than ever, we need to talk to each other, to listen to each other, and understand how we see the world, and cinema is the best medium for doing this." In his speech at the Eiga Sai opening night, Urabe added, “Movies incite us to laugh together, cry together, and there is no foreign accent when you laugh and cry. The more we communicate with each other, the more we will develop mutual understanding." Rolando Samson, project coordinator for Japan Foundation–Manila, told GMA News Online that the Philippines had to wait for more than two years to see ‘Departures’ because there are only four 35-mm print copies of the film being shown worldwide. “Global demand for Departures is extremely competitive. A breakthrough in the negotiations by the Japan Foundation–Manila happened early this year when the London distributor gave a tentative answer that a print may be available for the Filipino audience," Samson said. He added that Eiga Sai will be “memorable" for the Philippine audience as all of the 10 films being shown are in the 35-mm film format, a rarity these days. The 2011 Japanese Film Festival runs until July 10 at the Edsa Shang Cineplex 4. It will move to Gaisano Grand Citimall in Davao City on July 22-24, Ayala Center Cinema 4 in Cebu City on Aug. 2- 7, and UP Diliman Film Institute on Aug. 17-20. – YA, GMA News All the films have English subtitles. Admission is free. For detailed screening schedules, go to the Japan Foundation-Manila website.