On a previous post I talked about a new event I planned: The OFFiS! Which is a night where my friends and I gather to watch Academy Award nominated films in the category of Foreign Language.
Our first OFFiS event was yesterday. We watched a Japanese movie called Departures (2008), which won the Academy Award for our category in 2008. Here’s a description of it:
Departures (2008)
Freshly unemployed, young cellist Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) has an epiphany in which he realizes he’s been heading down the wrong career path. Retreating to his hometown, he trains for a new professional role as a nakanshi, or one who prepares the dead for burial. Tsutomu Yamazaki provides comic relief as Daigo’s eccentric mentor in director Yojiro Takita’s Oscar-winning, richly detailed — if unlikely — drama about finding your bliss.
The story was pretty moving, even though there were many things we could not quite understand from a cultural standpoint. For example: Why did the wife smile through misfortune? Why did she not express her point of view until it was too late? We were really struggling to understand the lack of communication in the main character’s marriage. Daigo, the main character, made it a habit out of hiding non-trivial information from his wife. For example, the fact that he owed 18MM yen on his cello, or what exactly he did for a living (and no, he wasn’t a spy or government agent). Every time the wife would ask why he didn’t tell her, his answer was “because you would have said no.” How do you live like that?
Anyways, putting that aside, there was something that kept nagging at me. The job he got was looked down upon by everyone. He was essentially a ceremonial undertaker. He prepared bodies to be put in the casket as family and friends watched. After a while, he warmed up to it, and thought of it as an honorable career. What was bugging me about it was how this perspective clashed with what I think makes a career, and that is the existence of intellectual challenge.
It didn’t take any experience or educational background, and there wasn’t much of an opportunity to learn new things. Is that a career? What really defines a career?
I guess I think about it this way because I get bored very easily, so I need constant change to keep me awake and interested. What if the job did not require education, but it had opportunities for learning different things? Like owning a store, or something like that. Would that be a career? I think I would still find it boring after a while, but I’ve never had that kind of job.
In terms of society, though, every job is essential. Why can’t I think of the undertaker’s job as a beautiful and essential role in the community? Why isn’t that enough to tickle my fancy?
I guess to each their own… it just got me thinking.
ina