Departures (Okuribito), directed by Yôjirô Takita, features the traditional Japanese burial ceremony. In the beginning of the film, a symphony orchestra is shut down for lack of funds. Daigo Kobayashi (played by Masahiro Motoki), a cellist, takes his wife and two daughters to his family’s house in the north of Japan, where by chance he runs into an elderly undertaker and becomes his apprentice. Filmviewers then see the customary ritual of beautifying dead bodies in the presence of their families in preparation for burial and cremation. Throughout the film, the former cellist articulates his anger toward his father’s abandonment of his family at a very young age, so sagacious filmviewers will be correct in anticipating how the film ends, and they may not have dry eyes when they leave the cinema. MH