Departures (Okuribito) (2008)

Lots of funerals, no weddings. This immensely satisfying Japanese movie won the Oscar for best foreign film earlier this year, and won 10 Awards of the Japanese Academy (with 3 other nominations), including best film, director, cinematography, actor, and supporting actor and actress. The supporting actor, Tsutomu Yamazaki, looked vaguely familiar, and now I know why. He starred in one of my all-time favorites, Tampopo (1985), a comedy. None of the other names rang a bell for me. I laughed, I cried; I loved the pictures, the sets, and the music (here's one song). It's about a classical cellist who takes a job preparing the dead for funerals. It started out funny, then turned to recurring themes of loss. When I travel I often plaster my camera to my face because everything seems so fresh and exciting. The photography in this made me think of that feeling. From the opening Fargo-like shot of a car traveling through a snowstorm, to the home that our hero Daigo and his wife Miko make for themselves in Yamagata, to the public bath house, everything is beautifully lit and shot (the Japanese even have a separate award category for lighting, which this won, natch). See it when you can.