Okuribito (aka Departures) (2008)

When the orchestra he plays in disbands, a cellist (the appealing Masahiro Motoki, MYSTERY OF RAMPO) moves to his home town and in need of a job becomes a "Nokanshi", a funeral assistant who helps clean, dress and make up the deceased in a ceremony prior to the burial. Directed by Yojiro Takita, the winner of the 2009 best foreign language film Oscar (as well as 10 Japanese Academy awards) sneaks up on you. You're watching it and it's moving along nicely and before you know it, you realize how almost overwhelming it all is and how involved you've become. Death and dead bodies are something we are often squeamish about, often preferring not to discuss or think about. Motoki's realization of this, and perhaps his own shame, causes him to keep his work secret from his wife (Ryoko Hirosue). Takita and his screenwriter Kundo Koyama tackles this human foible straight on while creating a powerful movie treatise on how too often what we fear and what we expend our anger on becomes inconsequential in the end. The movie's last forty minutes or so are an emotional rollercoaster. Joe Hisaishi left the animated world of Hayao Miyazaki long enough to create the wonderful cello infused score. With Tsutomu Yamazaki and Kimiko Yo.