Okuribito: Departures
2009, Widescreen. DVD Arranged alphabetically by title 1st FLOOR
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 titled '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.
Funerals and Funeralization in Major Religious Traditions Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience 2009, ISBN 9781412951784
Funerals and Funeralization in Cross-Cultural Perspective Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience 2009, ISBN 9781412951784