-By Maggie Lee

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An out-of-work cellist finds a new lease of life as a corpse cosmetician when he develops professional pride and respect for the dead in the heartwarming and humorous Departures, this year’s Oscar winner for best foreign-language film. Yojiro Takita, who directed enduring commercial hits like The Ying Yang Master and The Yen Family, has made a popular gem—thematically respectable, technically hard to fault, and artfully scripted to entertain and touch audiences.

Following his orchestra's disbanding, Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) resettles in his deep north hometown with his wife Mika (Ryoko Hirosue). He responds to an ad for a "journey assistant," thinking it's for a travel agency. After some droll beating around the bush by boss Sasaki (Tsutomu Yamazaki), he finds out that they are in the "encoffinment" business.

Departures invokes the quintessentially Japanese "artisan's soul"—a work ethic of utmost devotion to any profession. The attentive and ceremonious manner in which makeovers are performed before bodies are placed in their coffins is eye-opening. The film gently satirizes modern society's denial of the physical aspect of death through Daigo's initial shame and squeamishness about his job, and the social disdain he experiences. The scene of him wolfing down fried chicken suggests his appetite for life is eventually whetted by confronting mortality daily—a reconnection with nature's cycle.

The film can be taxed with being a little too long and too sentimental. Joe Hisaishi's score is unabashedly romantic and the cinematography is ravishing, but there are few moments of inner contemplation. Even when Daigo is alone playing the cello, the scenes are heavily embellished with swooping shots, a heavenly countryside backdrop and rhapsodic strings.

This is compensated for by some skillful comic relief and warm rapport among the cast, especially the filial relationship Daigo develops with Sasaki, who stands in for his absent father. Motoki's performance is rich with nuance, but Yamazaki takes expressiveness to a new level, remaining unperturbed, inscrutable and affectionately condescending at all times.