“Departures”

“Departures”
Japanese Title: 「おくりびと」
Director: Yôjirô Takita
(Japan, 2008)

SPOILER ALERT

It’s been a while since the last time I went to the movies. I was able to watch this film for free cause I was volunteering for a Japanese cultural institution here in Toronto. I got free tickets for two and I invited over my brother, who’s also a big Japanese culture fan like me.

If you still haven’t heard, Departures won the Oscars for best Foreign Language Film. And I was able to watch it in a very traditional way – in the theatre of course where you can see how people react to the film and how the atmosphere is really created as the story goes on in the life of a musician who ended up to work on grooming the dead and putting them in their coffin.

One of the well-known aspects of Japanese film – and still unfailing to move us – is on how they address the issue of “death”. Departures showed three things that made me aware of what the death of a person is all about: it pleads your respect, it asks you to think about or maybe imagine their lives and through your emotions, the dead is loved and honoured. I was so shocked to see a very attentive audience, they’re all silent at the right moment of the film, at the most emotional part, I feel great pain for the families that lost their loved ones in the film. With respect, we become concerned and we open our hearts and minds for the dead and give them the love and honour that we should give them.

But the roles of Daigo and his boss even intensifies this. As I showed sadness for the dead, the two suddenly makes the dead alive as if they called their souls back to present themselves to their loved ones one last time before they are gone for good.

The other issue I found about this film is quite simple with regards to Daigo who suddenly finds himself going back to his homeland just to find a better way to earn money. When someone is at a desperate situation, they will even sacrifice their dignity and be ridiculed by society just to keep surviving. This is quite predictable. But of course, I don’t think the job of grooming dead people are being glorified here cause it was never about Daigo or Sasaki, his boss. It was all about those who have died – in the end, they deserve to be remembered for all the great things that they’ve done while living here on earth. And this too became a challenge for Daigo as he faces the truth about his father who left him and his mother at a young age.

Overall, I really love the camera works and the colours that bring life to every scene of the film. The actors definitely did a great job. Although the story is predictable, the little scenes become more important than the entire story which is way magical in my mind.

“Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return” by Marjane Satrapi

“Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return”
a comic by Marjane Satrapi
(France)

I would have to say that I never cried on a graphic novel like what I experienced with Satrapi’s two graphic novels. Persepolis 2 just hit the spot for me because of how I can relate with her life away from her native country – well except for the whole sex, drugs and hobo thing.

After reading the second installment of the series – and I’m hoping the third and fourth to be translated in English very soon – I learned a lot more about the conditions of anomie which is something that I learned in one of my linguistics classes. Not only does anomie apply in language but also in terms of culture and traditions which migrants carry when they leave their motherland unaware of the future and the unprecedented changes that will take place there without them watching over or listening.

Anomie, according to the book by H. Douglas Brown about Second Language Acquisition, means a feeling “of social uncertainty, dissatisfaction, or “homelessness” as individuals lose some of the bonds of a native culture but are not yet fully acculturated in the new culture” (p. 376). This definition I believe truly defines my state in life at this moment thousands of miles from my homeland.

It’s the feeling that the character Marji felt exactly: when she’s abroad, she will always be an Iranian, but back home in Iran, she will always be a foreigner. The freedoms that she experienced in Europe – such as sexual freedom – is something that her friends in Iran can hardly relate to. But she kept strong with all the things that she went through. As someone who educates herself with all diligence and self-discipline, Marji fought against the challenges of life that she had to face.

What I found really emotional was the time when she was back in Iran to end up in a marriage that was not working, a society controlled by the guardians of the revolution and despite her freedom to study, a limited application of her education. Her decision to leave the country might be a really hard decision to make but with this decision I understood why I am where I am right now. I didn’t want to be betrayed by my view of my home country before I left but of course I didn’t hesitate to take the opportunity to watch news about it. As you experience life in such manner, you find yourself defining your love for your own country in another light.

I find my country as beautiful and rich in culture, traditions and history. But I don’t like the politics which influences the minds of people – to be watchful and speculative, to be fond of rumours and gossip and to be the ones who wish to take the law in their own hands.

But going back to Satrapi’s graphic novel. The main point of the Persepolis series is “freedom”. Being born in a country where this freedom is “abused” these days, I do find myself envious of those who never had it and are fighting for it. Those who are controlled by the state, by society, by the media, these victims who can never find freedom in their lifetime; these people are the ones who I always pray for a lot. When all they wanted to do is have a good and comfortable life, you’d ask why is it necessary for someone to interfere with them or why is it important that everyone in the society has to know about it. It’s not all about privacy but it’s all about freedom from ridicule that I find myself wishing for all these poor people and most especially for those victimized by a society who claims to have the right to make insensitive reactions about someone without a solid basis ridiculing them and eventually ostracizing them from the society. We just don’t learn.

One thing I agree with Marji is that there’s a price for freedom.