Departures -1/2-

The story about someone who’s helping people to start their new lives

 Sadly, for human being, death is inevitable thing. There is no exception for this. All living things are pretended to not think about it, because there is only endless fear if they try to figure it out. However, I dare say, losing a person whom I love is tougher than confronting our own. Every stuff around you will remind about the dead. I tried to find the book which I had not read for ages. When I opened the book, suddenly the small photo popped up and touched my feet. To be honest, I was not prepared for this. I did not have a choice except looking at the photo blankly. The left one has to take his own all the burden, loneliness and sadness by himself. No matter how much if you want to express the thankfulness or apology for the dead, simply they do not exist in this world anymore.

Last year, there was a terrible earthquake happened and huge number of people lost their lives. Japanese government compensated enough money to the victim’s families, but their sadness could not be erased by this. 11^th of March in 2012, it was the date of one year of Tohoku earthquake happened. Many Japanese came to mourn on this memorial. There were many article about the ceremony, the one story of the undertaker caught my eyes.[1] Jiba Asushi lived in Tohoku area as well, he survived. He said he still remember what he saw at the first. All the dead body was decomposed and stinks. Their arms and legs all twisted with mud. Jiba decided to have a funeral for them. He washed them and put make up for the dead sincerely. He did this job for 10,000 people.

The movie, ‘departures’, is the story about Japanese undertaker as well. The main character, Daigo was the cellist. But he is fired because of what the orchestra’s director’s said. His unexpected unemployment made him depressed. He could not imagine carrying on life without playing cello. But life cannot be sustained without eating either, so he tried hard to find job. He easily got a job except the problem was undertaker is not that socially high-respected job unlike cellist. So he could not tell his wife about his new job, but as time goes on, he becomes the real undertaker who understands the importance of his job’s role.

 Even though the movie deals with the topic which is not something to be taken lightly, it balances with the joyfulness of life and respect for death. From the movie and the story of Jiro, we can realize the importance of the funeral director. They allow people to have an opportunity to think about the dead and say goodbye to them. The one girl said thank you to Jiro. She could not say farewell to his father until Jiro gave a funeral service for him.

Young Ah Kim

---

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/world/asia/a-year-later-undertakers-story-offers-japan-hope.html