Departures 2008

Been meaning to watch this for a while and I finally sat down with my friend and got forced to watch it. Glad I did. The topics and themes covered in this film were very deep and I found that to be my favourite part of the film. The whole things about death and mortality, in watching it, I found myself thinking a lot about death. I started asking my friend about whether or not he would work with dead bodies (if the pay was good of course). He said no and so did I after I saw the scene of him entering the old lady’s house 2 weeks after she’d died. (Made me feel a bit queasy) But I did really put some thought into it. Working with dead bodies would be terrifying at first surely, but the idea of death is something that scares us all, and coming to terms with your personal relationship with death, like the main character did in this film, I think would be quite healthy. I was sitting there watching the film thinking about how we are all gonna die, which is something that is hard to accept, but it is something each individual person in the world has in common, we all have to come to terms with the fact we will all one day die on our own. I think I have come to terms with the fact one day I will die, but I think it’s the idea that that day could be any day including today that still scares me. Death is sudden and unexpected, and that to me is the scariest part about it. A lot of people die in this film and it is often unexpected which feels very real and very scary. Sorry for the rant about death this film just made me think a lot which is what I think was so good about it. There were lots of other interesting themes explored on top of this one, the film really makes you think which is why I think the writing is so beautiful. The soundtrack was nice and worked very well with the film. The whole film was about music in a way so every time he played his instrument it was very nice, the scene from the poster where he plays in the middle of the field looked amazing.  I liked the stuff with his father a lot, how he views his father who walked out on him with so much hate, but because of this new job and his new outlook on life and death, he was able to mend that relationship in some ways which I thought was very interesting. I like all the stuff with the rock too the ending was perfect.  “Long ago, before writing, you'd send someone a stone that suited the way you were feeling. From its weight and touch, they'd know how you felt. From a smooth stone they might get that you were happy, or from a rough one that you were worried about them.” a slightly different review for a slightly different film.  8.4/10