Departures

'DEPARTURES'

Directed by: Yujiro Takita
Written by: Kundo Koyama
Cast: Masahiro Motoki , Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kimiko Yo, Ryoko Hirosue

Mentality has proven if it's an Oscar winning movie, it'll sure be boring as hell. Depends on your kind of hell, action packed bullet flying exploding bombs movie lately is a hellish' ride for some because of it's a lame Hollywood cliché and it's time for a fresh change. That's why western is turning their attention to the east, not for the sword slashing martial art movie but a movie with everyday reality.

I won't deny this year Oscar foreign language category winner 'Departures' is a beautifully composed movie, with music score that depends heavily on cello and wide shot of countryside; TOO beautiful maybe but director Yujiro Takita made it a universally appealing. At first glance, you might get fooled by thinking it's about ritual of Japanese culture but actually its universal ritual of handling the deceased.

Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a hardworking husband is a professional cellist who loses his job when his orchestra goes bankrupt. He and his wife, Mika (Ryoko Hirosue) was forced to move back to his hometown in the Japanese countryside and into his late mother's house. Daigo is slightly haunted by a blurry childhood memories; the whereabouts of Daigo’s father, who walked out on the family when Daigo was a young boy, are unknown. Seeking employment, he responds to a help-wanted ad. The headline reads "Departures," he assumes the position has something to do with the traveling agency. Surprised and shocked but in dire need for a job, Daigo gives the job a try by assisting Mr. Sasaki (Tsutomu Yamazaki) who is in the business of preparing dead bodies for burial. When Mika founds out, she couldn't accept that Daigo will have to work with corpses forever and later leaves him.

The movie dealt on the simple taboo, working with the dead. Call it 'sueh', scary or filthy, in reality somebody has to do it. Ask yourself: If you die, you want your body to be rotten and unattended? Daigo childhood friend felt uneasy and told him to find a better job. Later, he met Daigo again when there is a death in his family. It's not about the process; it not about the work but it's about bringing comfort to distraught families. The dramatic tension works well between Daigo and Mika, Daigo choices to stay or leave the departure business and the closure he needed for his dad. There are two scenes that I really love: the first one is when Daigo discovers there is a death season and the second scene when Sasaki said he can handle all religious death ritual. Mr. Sasaki assistant Yuriko Kamimura, (Kimiko Yo) turn out to be a very lovable character, she portrayed emotions in an unexpected way. Twice she played with Daigo feelings but she couldn’t handle hers when she told the story about her children and actor Kimiko Yo expression gave an astounding acting compared to Masahiro Motoki or Tsutomu Yamazaki and should receive an award.

The story is predictable, no spoiler here but at the climax of the movie, I've watched the same usage of object to remind the dead in another Japanese movie 'Angel's Egg'. It's nothing but it lessen the impact for me, luckily with well written story and great actors gives strength for viewers to enjoy 'Departures'. Most people cover grief with anger and loss with fear. Takita use this foundation for the movie. People tends have negatives thought to what they couldn't understand or handle. The same goes for the moviegoers out there, do not judge an Oscar winning film before watching it.

P.S: Wait till the ending credit, one word... superb

~ESK

After School

'AFTER SCHOOL'
Directed by: Kenji Uchida
Written by: Kenji Uchida
Cast: Yo Oizumi, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Masato Sakai, Takako Tokiwa

The movie starts with a beautiful childhood memory that leads to a breakfast scene with a pregnant woman and a salaryman. He eats, then runs of to work in a Porsche. From there, the traditional Japanese plot went haywire but the story will be put in pieces of jigsaw puzzle, enough to make the audience got restless.
Kimura (Masato Sakai), the salaryman went missing after running of with a mysterious women. Miki (Tomoko Tabata) gives birth in a mad rush situation to hospital but Kimura can't be contacted and his responsibility falls to the shoulder of school gym instructor Jinno (Yo Oizumi), Kimura's friends since childhood. A coworker takes a picture of Kimura taking a beautiful woman to a hotel. The photo makes it way to the corporate ladder and his company executives hire a porn shop owner/private detective, Shimazaki (Kuranosuke Sasaki) to find Kimura for unknown reasons. Shimizaki finds Jinno, showed him the photo and Jinho agrees to help out the investigation to find Kimura.
Clue after clue was given to the audience which were peeled of slowly but in an acceptable pace. I'm not fimiliar with director/writer Kenji Uchida works (or forgot I've watched it before coz the title 'Stranger Of Mine ' is very fimiliar) works but impressed with his tricky storyline using multiple viewpoints and non linear structure. Uchida clever aproach is he didn't try to challange viewer mind by making things complicated and later giving a long, boring explaination. Infact, he invite the viewer to experience the situation and examine the evidence themselves. He manipulates but never make the audience felt stupid when he reach the story deconstructing point.
If this a typical Hong Kong/Korean/Japan movie, with the appearance of police squad, Yakuza mobsters, detectives and innocent bystander in a restaurant, I'll guarantee they will be a bloodbath in a final gun vs. katana showdown. Uchida manage to succesfully change the extremely tense situation into comedic ending. Some might find 'After School' boring but for me, it have an original twisted story that is good enough to make Hollywood filmakers thinking of a remake but then again, they will make a poor quality remake and give the original version a bad name.

~ESK

How To Become Myself

HOW TO BECOME MYSELF

Directed by: Jun Ichikawa
Writen by: Kaori Mado (novel)
Cast: Riko Narumi, Atsuko Maeda

Instead of story revolving around Mat Rempit or Bohsia and other local clichés, why not try youth drama that involves identities, school problems and family issues? This is more down to earth teenager dilemmas which could be watched and understood by all audience. This is what ‘How To Become Myself’ excels at the silver screen.

Based on a novel by 30-year-old Kaori Mado, tells the tale of two girls faced with that typical adolescent choice: fit in or be cast out. Juri is an attractive high school student but not the most popular girl in class, the title belongs to Hinako Hanada. There’s a fine line drawn when audience was introduced to the school outcast Kubota Manami. She empathizes with both of those students but didn’t attempt to communicate with them, it’s that feeling we have in school: if I talk with the outcast, people will find me ‘uncool’ but I’m not good enough to talk with the popular. Hinako suddenly falls from grace and becomes shunned an object for bullying. On the last day at school, Juri and Hinako have a brief chat in the library but viewers can felt the distance as they were separated by tables.

The two girls go their separate ways because they attend different high schools. Juri faced problems when her parents frequently quarrel, while Hinako became depressed at having to move to another school. Juri trying to write for her first high school novel but draws to a blank and was advised by her teacher to create lies since that is fiction writing is. Juri sends a well-wishing text message to Hinako (but it was pronounce e-mail on subtitles) and Juri pretends he didn’t know who’s the sender. Juri apologize but Hinako can’t resist writing back and later depend on every Juri’s messages as her guide to her everyday life. They’re messages become the story of Juri’s novel ‘The Story Of Hina & Kotori’. Unknowingly Juri helps re-build Hinako confidence but until what point? This is where to Kaori Mado beautifully plays with her reader: who’s actually living in a happy and joyful life and who’s actually fantasies to have one? Which of the girls is having the identity crisis?

The only problem with ‘How To Become Myself’ is it’s slow pacing and as the first movie to watch at Japan Film Festival marathon, I need to drink Red Bull to keep awake before next movie. Director Jun Ichikawa also gives an arty variety to some scene with extreme close-up to show emotion, split screen to create distance and fade to black every time to show their sms reply. A human brain couldn’t take too many fade to black on the big screen, which for me more to flickers and this technique somehow really annoying.

Back to the earlier clichés I mentioned, there is no romance, no sex, no drugs, no violence, no terminal illness and no lesbian kiss scene between the girls to make this movie a success. This is a fine example of a bully victim cry for help and if you read school bully reports in newspaper, a friend is still an effective way to help the victim to ease the pain or being suicidal. I’m not giving out public service announcement but this is an effective way to make a teen film pure and simple by using two girls and their hand phones.

~ESK