I have been planning to watch this movie for the past few months, not because it is the winner of Best Foreign Language Film award of this year's academy awards, but because it is the winner of the award, and, japanese.
Daigo is a cellist in an orchestra in Tokyo. The orchestra is disbanded one day and he loses his job, resulting in a (in my opinion) brave decision to quit playing and moving to his hometown with his wife. There in Yamagata, he quickly finds a job; a job he first mistakes as a travel agency because of how the ad sounds like (assisting departures), only to quickly find out that it is about encoffinment. Being desperate, he accepts the job, and his journey to a world which most people hate or feel disgust begins, so does his journey to a deep insight to the concept of life and death, along with us the audience.
One of the things that I liked most about the characters is how Daigo's wife, Mika, accepts Daigo's profession finally through the end, seeing how he performs it in an almost a complete trance, yet fully in control; with something he does not have while playing cello with orchestra. I believe that from that point on, she respects him and his job not just because this is what is expected from her as a wife. Furthermore, the depiction of transformation that death itself causes on those who are left behind is again deeply impressive and touching. One other thing that I liked is the depiction of the need to eat as the necessity to survive; it is almost as if as long as you see the characters are eating (which is shown a lot especially in the first half of the movie), you know that you are in the living zone. The more they all get hold of the idea of death, the less they are shown eating, meaning their ideas of death has evolved to a whole different - and more positive - spiritual level.
I like the japanese. I like the traditions of the japanese. I like watching these traditions smoothly dispersed in today's modern life style. The ever dutiful and respectable wife, the boss himself, certainly the whole ritual.. are all so very japanese, not in an epic or exaggerated way, but rather such as the everyday life routine. It is funny and touching at the same time; I cried non-stop for the last 15 minutes of the movie, however, it is certainly not a tear jerker, because you absolutely love the characters and because you really feel like you know them. Yet, even if you spend the last minutes sobbing, it is nonetheless hopeful, leaving you at the end extremely peaceful.
I believe that the movie is written "awards" all over it, well-directed, well-acted and beautifully framed. Without a doubt, it is one of the best movies that I have seen for a long long while. And oh my, Ryoko Hirosue has not changed at all in 8 years since the movie Wasabi!
One more thing, for those who sees that blowfish milt which look disgusting but certainly is sensational: http://www.welcome-moldova.com/articles/fugu.shtml
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