A few thoughts about Departures

Becky Dornon sent the following to us via email, and we thought the rest of you would be interested. If you have any reflections, suggestions, or ideas to share, don't hestatite to drop us an email, or register with the site and post them here yourself.
~Marjorie

The literal translation of the Japanese title given this movie, Okuribito, is something like Those Who Send Off or The Sender Offers, so I understand the American distributing studio went with the travel agent lingo and chose "Departures."

The traditional belief is that the spirit stays near the body for three days before leaving this world, and that is why the body is tended to, every step of the way so as not to leave alone the body or the spirit of the loved one.

When my father died, I told the nurses I wanted to lovingly look on (and even help) as they prepared his body to leave the hospital room. They did not say no, but they never came back before our 3 hour health department time limit was up, either, so we had to leave him lying there, alone in a hospital room not being able to witness who or how he would be tended to, next, and seeing him, again, once in the morgue, was out of the question, according to "hospital policy,"

Once he was in the morgue, I could find no place that would allow me to participate in the cremation as respect for my father and as closure for me as shown in this film. One cemetery finally allowed me to meet his body at the crematorium, but wanted extra money. Why, I have no idea, and they permitted this if and only if I promised to leave after the cremation began so the staff could also leave and allow the automated process of the furnace to complete without further personnel cost.

I felt sad that I lived in a land where I could not bury my father according to my culture, and I pray that this movie will help those in the funeral business to appreciate how important participation in cremation is for many families who now live in this country. I hope that they understand it is their duty to accommodate the simple needs of the families that mean the world to them. After all, all I wanted was to usher him from this world to the next, and perhaps that might have been the best English title, The Ushers.

Thank you for this festival. You have my permission to share any of this that may help promote discussion. love, b.