This film really struck a chord with my heart, mind and soul. I have long heard rave reviews about this film but shunned it due to its somewhat gory theme. Let's face it! Who would embrace thoughts about death when news sensationalise things and report only the most horrifying accounts of deaths in cases of murder. This film had paid a poetic tribute to the passing of life. The professionalism exhibited by the "nankon" (i.e casket) undertakers elevate the art of dressing the dead into a whole other realm altogther. This film attempts to bring what chado has probably brought to the art of tea appreciation. One can choose to consume tea in a callous manner with no due respect to how the tea and its utensils were created for your use. If you have ever attended a formal chado ceremony, you will realise the pains taken to honour and express gratitude to the skilled artisans who took years or even decades to perfect their artisanal skills to create that exquisite tea bowl for you to drink your powdered tea from, lacquer vessel for your tea, the sprig of flower plucked from the gardens for your viewing pleasure. Each and every item in the tea ceremony is an efforts towards a quiet reminder to be grateful for everything in our lives and not to take things for granted.
Maybe the message hit a home run personally as 2011 was a year of many 'departures' for me. The scene where salmon are swimming vehemently against the current upstream, and that of a salmon carcass floating lifeless downstream after its failed attempt. This brought to mind how we, the human race, struggle with all our might in the fight for survival. And the unlucky few who never made it.
For the modern jobseeker/job hopper, I would like to think of it as a departure from the old self in order to embrace the new self one will become. Departures in all its guises may indeed be the gateway to a new beginning when one has to start from ground zero and re-learn everything from scratch. When Kobayashi-san sold off his magnificent cello worth 18 million yen after being laid off from an unprofitable orchestra, it was a dreaded decision he had to carry out since he no longer had the means nor purpose to own an instrument of this quality. It was time to pass it on to someone else who can do it justice and let the cello do what it was intended for.
The touching scene where Kobayashi-san shares the story of his father telling him aboutthe ancient people expressesing their innermost feelings by selecting a stone or pebble, where its texture,shape,size become a physical token to express their hopes and wishes for you- a stone letter. This romanticized way of expression makes me wonder if inanimate objects like river stones become portable momentos of a life lived with only majestic mountains and trees, the silent stream or river as the only witnesses to your limited existence on this earth i.e until they pass on when they too depart from this world, decimated by natural elements over time immemorial.
