Fiction
DVD
Availability
Details
PUBLISHED
DESCRIPTION
1 videodisc (131 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in
ISBN/ISSN
LANGUAGE
NOTES
Title from container
Daigo Kobayashi is a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and finds himself without a job. He decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled 'Departures' thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency. He discovers that the job is actually for a 'Nokanshi' or 'encoffineer,' a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art, acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed
Originally released as a motion picture in 2008
Special features: Interview with director Yôjirô Takita
Director of photography, Takeshi Hamada ; editor, Akimasa Kawashima ; music, Joe Hisaishi
Masahiro Motoki, Ryoko Hirosue, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kimiko Yo, Tetta Sugimoto, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Takashi Sasano
MPAA rating: PG-13; for some thematic elements
DVD, region 1, widescreen (1.85:1); Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
Japanese dialogue, English subtitles