Friday, July 3, 2009

Departures

I have never been so excited as to tell how good some movies are (ok....maybe there are plenty of times) but this movie left me seated in the cinema for well 5 minutes after it ended....the impact it has is just surreal.. i went to the movie with a real good friend, who by the way was tired after work and the movie was scheduled at 11 pm... he did give a hint of wanting to go back and just watch movies at his home mainly because we stuffed ourselves with chilli's amazing quesadillas and bottomless juices but too long have i waited for this international movie to be screened here in malaysia...

The movie is called departures... having read a bit of the review i know its about life and death...a movie with real deep meaning...but for my friend he thought it to be a movie set in an airport or some sort...just like how the lead in the movie got it wrong...for my friend... it came as a surprise and to my delight he loved it too.

The movie is 10 years in the making, most of the time in which the director tries to understand the ways of casketing and funeral ceremonies. It revolves around a wonderful yet not a successful cellist and after his orchestra was dissolved he returns to his hometown with his cheerful yet broken hearted wife... with no job prospect, an advertisement that offers a job handling 'departures' caught his interest thinking its a travel angency... he got the job just by promising to work hard and only then did he found out that the advertisement was misprinted...it is actually a job handling the departed.

His journey starts off rocky and gradually the job grew on him...but the perception of others gave him a hard time especially that of his wife...an event changes all that and he got the respect he deserve. The story of his father that ran away from home when he was small only to be reunited by his passing is a scene that left me shedding tears full of deep emotion (and i'm well proud of it!).

Its a movie from japan and have won an Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film 2009... go watch if slow, deep meaningful movie's your thing.

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