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Daigo Kobayashi is a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and now finds himself without a job. Daigo decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled "Departures" thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer," a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art of "Nokanshi," acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living.
Daigo plays cello in a Tokyo orchestra that dissolves. Hes not good enough to find another chair, so he asks his cheerful wife Mika to move to his boyhood home in the shadow of Mt. Fuji. She assents. His mother is dead; his father left them when Daigo was small. He answers an ad, thinking its for a travel agency, but its to prepare bodies for burial in a ceremony in front of family and friends. The boss, Sasaki, is quietly forceful; Daigo takes the job, giving Mika no details. As he finds dignity in the ritual and a father figure in Sasaki, Daigo learns how others see this "unclean" work. Has he found a place in the world; if so, what about Mika and his buried memories?
Masahiro Motoki
Daigo Kobayashi
Ryôko Hirosue
Mika Kobayashi
Tsutomu Yamazaki
Ikuei Sasaki
Kazuko Yoshiyuki
Tsuyako Yamashita
Kimiko Yo
Yuriko Uemura
Takashi Sasano
Shokichi Hirata
Tetta Sugimoto
Yamashita
Tôru Minegishi
Yoshiki Kobayashi
Tatsuo Yamada
Togashi
Yukari Tachibana
Sonezaki
Tarô Ishida
Naomi Togashi
Sanae Miyata
Tomeo's father
Ryôsuke Ôtani
Kazuko Kobayashi
Mitsuyo Hoshino
Grandmother
Tatsuhito Okuda
Akemi Fuji
Miyako Hattori
Mari Hayashida
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