Film ,Religion,"Departures"

A Japanese film about a musician Daigo(he plays the cello) who is forced into unemployment when the orchestra he plays for goes bankrupt. Misreading an ad, he is alarmed to find that he has accepted a position in a firm that prepares dead bodies for burial. His job is to perform the exacting procedure of washing the corpse, applying makeup until each cadaver looks human a job made more demanding because in this Japanese ritual every stage is conducted in front of the family This calls for impeccable skill(no family member must actually see the skin that is being washed) and consummate diplomacy because of the tense emotions on display.SEE Ebert review
The drama of the film consists first in the transformation of the leading figures:the man Daigo,his wife Mika(who leaves him for a time, his friends who warn him that he has accepted a loathsome occupation, from revulsion(he is hysterical after his first job) acceptance and finally to a sense of real accomplishment and fulfillment ;in the responses of the families which range from uncontrollable grief as in the case of violent deaths of young people,warm farewells to grandparents and outbursts of recrimination on the parts of members who blame one another;and finally in the ballet of the ritual itself preformed with consummate skill and tenderness. The compassionate expression of the head of the firm,Mr. Sassaki,is a triumph of actor's art(as are all te other roles.. Throughout Daigo plays haunting music on the cello implying that he is an artist in both of his professions. I found that "Departures" sometimes strained remain disciplined so as not to fall into a tub of Schmaltz
I loved the film and keep thinking about it.The issues that it raised for me were around tne power of religious ritual. I grew up as the son of a Rabbi. The film reminded me that in this position I encountered people in the great passages of their lives: birth death and even bar mitzvahs, saw them in joy and in despair. Now I am aware that there is more to pople that what I find in Hobbes or Adam Smith.
Many critics, myself included have pointed out that the film is about life rater than death. It shows tne power of religious ritual but says nothing about God or the afterlife.