http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/departures.jpg
[[caption-width:500:"Death is for the living and not for the dead so much." --RogerEbert, quoting ''Gates of Heaven'' in his review of ''Departures''.]]

''Departures'' is a Japanese film directed by Takita Yojiro, which won the [[AcademyAward Oscar]] for best foreign film in 2009.

Kobayashi Daigo is a cello player in a classical orchestra in Tokyo, but when his cash-strapped ensemble is disbanded, he finds himself without a job. He decides to give up on music and move with his wife back to his hometown of Yamagata in northern Japan.

He settles in his late mother's house, and applies for a job in what appears to be a travel agency. In fact, the job offer had been deliberately advertised in a misleading way: the business is actually that of a mortician, who couldn't find an assistant due to the traditional taboo on death in Japanese culture. Daigo, at first reluctant, warms to the job, as he discovers it implies a deep form of respect and care for the deceased. In a heavily ritualized ceremony, his boss and he prepare the bodies for encoffinment, before the eyes of the relatives.

However, he can't bring himself to admit to his wife the grisly nature of his new job. She finds out, eventually, and freaks out, leaving him on his own until he's changed his mind. But by then he feels he has discovered his calling, and keeps the job. His wife eventually comes back, telling him she's pregnant. She once again tries to talk him into quitting, but when an old woman she had befriended dies, she gets to watch her husband at work, and sheds her prejudices.

Not to be confused with the [[Series/{{Departures}} travel series]] of the same name.
-----
!!Contains examples of:

* BadAssGrandma: The old lady who runs the public baths single-handedly [[spoiler: until she collapses]].
* BenevolentBoss: Daigo's boss is the stuff of employment dreams. For instance, when Daigo's first job in the field turns out to dealing an severely decayed body, his boss gives him a cash bonus and the rest of the day off noting that he would never have given a rookie a job that tough on the first day if he could have helped it.
* [[spoiler: DrivenToSuicide: The Wholesome Crossdresser]]
* TheFaceless / TheBlank: Daigo's dad in his memories [[spoiler: until the end]].
* TheFilmOfTheBook: The movie is apparently based on the book ''Coffin Man'', which includes a similarly harrowing first day for the protagonist, who becomes an encoffiner almost by accident after losing his job.
* TheFunInFuneral: The lead character finds himself in all sorts of funerals from the quiet and charming to the loud and raucous.
* FuroScene: Daigo finds out the public baths he used to patronize as a child are still open, and becomes a regular once again.
* HeroicBSOD: After his first day Daigo is in shock, can't stand the sight of a chicken his wife is preparing, and is so comforted/overwhelmed by his wife's "purity" that he practically ravishes her in the kitchen.
** When Daigo's wife finds out that he's not, in fact, working at a travel agency but handling corpses she flips out (''"Unclean!!"'') and leaves. [[spoiler: She gets better and returns after finding out she's pregnant.]]
* HumiliationConga: Daigo "volunteers" to play the corpse in an instructional video, which includes having to be painted white and wear a diaper. [[spoiler: On top of all that his wife, who doesn't know the truth, finds the video, flips out and leaves.]]
* MeaningfulFuneral: Several of them in the course of the story, [[spoiler:especially the last one, that of Daigo's father.]]
* MoodWhiplash: At the beginning of the film, the scene and Daigo's voiceover paints what appears to be a very solemn and serious film. [[spoiler: Then, as Daigo is washing the body of a recently deceased "girl", we are treated to a shocked face and confused groping as he discovers that the girl was actually a cross-dressing boy.]]
* OrphansPlotTrinket: Sort of: The "message stone" that Daigo and his father exchanged [[spoiler: and that Daigo's father still had, decades later.]]
* ParentalAbandonment: Daigo keeps an enduring grudge against his father for going away all those years ago.
** [[spoiler: Daigo's office mate is herself a MissingMom and deeply regrets it. She says (and it's implied that Daigo's dad could have been the same way) that she can't return due to being from a small town where she would be viciously persecuted.]]
* TearJerker: Most of the movie, a given when you consider that it involves a lot of death and resulting heartache. [[spoiler: Perhaps one of the most jarring moments is the whole of the bathhouse owner's coffining. It occurs just as Daigo's wife returns, and the old woman is the mother of Daigo's friend. On top of that, we find out that the old man who likes to play chess is a cremator. Before the whole process, we are treated to his own, grim analysis of the irony behind his last meeting with the old woman and his role in life.]]
* TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: Averted. The characters leave Tokyo early on, and most of the film takes place in small-town Japan.
* [[spoiler: WholesomeCrossdresser: The deceased pretty girl in the opening scenes and the receiver of a red dress in the trailers is actually a boy.]]
-----
<<|{{Film}}|>>