Takita eventually pushes the emotions too hard but by then I had lost all resistance. It's a beautiful film but take two hankies.
Comment
10/15/09
Departures (2009)
81
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:77
Fresh:62
Rotten:15
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: If slow and predictable, Departures is a quiet, life affirming story.
Genre: Foreign Films
US Box Office: $1,279,245
Synopsis: Nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film, Departures is a delightful journey into the heartland of Japan as well an astonishingly beautiful look at a sacred part of Japan's... [More]
Starring: Masahiro Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ryoko Hirosue, Kazuko Yoshiyuki
Director: Yojiro Takita
Reviews for Departures
Top CriticDepartures is about life, death, grief and loss, but it's also, in a quietly effective way, about coming to terms with expectations.
10/15/09
Top CriticThe film seduces us into this world with such affection and beauty.
10/14/09
Top CriticBeautifully acted and classically filmed, Departures is a gentle, wise, immensely appealing film.
10/14/09
Top CriticLike the art of encoffinment itself, Departures unfolds with a delicacy and precision that slowly captivates the viewer.
10/14/09
Top CriticYojiro Takita has crafted a rich, memorable and thoroughly unconventional film that celebrates finding your own particular place in a world full of surprising opportunities.
10/13/09
Top CriticDepartures is a great film and, yes, you're going to need your reading glasses -- this one is subtitled.
10/11/09
Top CriticOscar can be a big softie, as proved by how it presented itself to this sweet, sober chamber piece about living life and handling death.
10/11/09
Top CriticThe film has enjoyed tremendous acclaim but I hesitate to recommend it unreservedly. Better to lower your expectations and discover those elements that touch you most deeply without waiting for the film to deliver something that it doesn't really promise
10/08/09
Top CriticIt's an affecting experience (you'll need to bring some tissues) but rest assured it's a joyous one too.
10/15/09
Top CriticThe film's tone lies, appropriately, somewhere between life, death, and the inadvertent humor that comes from finally accepting the yin/yang perfection of both and getting on with what comes between.
08/28/09
A surprisingly uplifting examination of life and loss.
08/28/09
A moving celebration of life through showing reverence for death.
08/27/09
Redeems a trite 'redemptive' story about family with hushed, beautifully staged sequences of 'encoffinment'...
08/21/09
One of the best movies released this year, it will be included on my year-end top 10 list. This movie has a personal touch that never wears out its welcome...
08/07/09
Absolutely, beautifully, tear duct openingly right.
08/07/09
The ending, which involves a rock, would wring tears from a stone.
08/07/09
A compassionate and wry character study of a man who, finding himself at a crossroads, is reborn through death.
07/31/09
...feels like two films, one which is a perceptive and naturalistic study of modern life in Japan, and one which is an animated Hallmark card of montages and soaring strings...
07/19/09
The winning nature of the performances outweighs Takita's more obvious choices.
07/16/09
Latest News for Departures
May 28, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Up And Drag Me to Hell Are Certified Fresh
This week at the movies, we've got a high-flying house (Up, with voice work by Ed Asner and Christopher Plummer) and a demonic curse (Drag Me to Hell, starring Alison Lohman and... More...
April 19, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review 
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January 13, 2009:
Academy Names Nine Foreign Film Finalists
The Academy has narrowed its choices for this year's recipient of the Best Foreign Language Film Award, choosing its favorite nine releases from a field of 65. More...
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