Departures - A Japanes Film - 5 Stars

At The Cinema                            Departures “ Daigo Kobayashi  a cellist in Tokyo, loses his job when his orchestra is disbanded. He decides to move back to his hometown, with his wife Mika. Daigo's family used to run a small coffee shop. His father ran away with the waitress when Daigo was very young, and his mother raised him by herself. His mother died two years ago, and left him the house where he grew up. Daigo feels guilty about not having taken better care of his mother. Back home, Daigo finds an advertisement in the newspaper for "assisting departures". He goes to the interview, uncertain of the job's nature. He is hired on the spot after only one question ("Will you work hard?") and being handed an "advance" by his new boss Sasaki . He discovers that the job involves preparing the dead. Daigo reluctantly accepts. He returns to his wife with sukiyaki for a celebration, but he tells her he will be performing some sort of ceremony. [Wikipedia] I'm  something of a foreign film buff, but Japanese movies are not among my favorite genre.  They seem to fall into two categories: extreme overstated Samurai culture, or bizarre, overstated Japanese humor (everything Japanese seems to be bizarre and  overstated).  Departures is the best Japanese film I've ever seen (NetFlix). Hell, I think it's the best movie I've watched all year.  It worked (for me) on many levels.  It was damned interesting I liked the characters, immensely Superb,understated acting It was spiritually moving Oh, it won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, something I didn't know until I was getting the clip.   I rather think the Japanese "send-off"  is far, far superior to the way we do it. Turning loved ones into wax figures, with mouths stitched closed, and with no family involvement in the process, save for paying for it. ”