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Osoushiki (The Funeral)
Directed By Itami Juzo
Japan, 1984
Starring
Yamazaki Tsutomu
Miyamoto Nobuko
Sugai Kin
Otaki Hideji
It was a hit in Japan, taking five Japanese Academy awards including best picture, director and actor (Tsutomu Yamazaki) in 1984. Now 24 years after this debut from the would-be internationally famous writer/director of Tampopo and A Taxing Woman, the film still stands as one of his best. Itami had already spent 24 years in the business as an actor when Osoushiki was released. At 51 he was a rookie director, but he'd already amassed a god deal of film savvy from those acting years. As a result Osoushiki does not feel like a freshman film. Ironically, Tampopo, his remarkable follow up illustrates more technical and directorial snafus than this film. It's not perfect, but it is classic Japanese cinema in a time when classic Japanese cinema had all but disappeared. In fact during the 1980's and 90's almost all Japanese cinema disappeared.
It's the story of the death of a man who was neither popular nor important, who had done more in his life to alienate people than to endure himself to them. Even his wife was seemingly never the object of his love. Suddenly on the very day he received a clean bill of health from the doctor in Tokyo. He suffers the heart attack that would take his life. The family = his daughter and son-in-law, his brother, his nephews, and neighbors descend upon the house in the days leading up to the funeral.
Much like a funeral in real life Itami's funeral is a completely surreal experience. Elders discuss and argue over the proper protocol while children play near the corpse nearly oblivious to the somberness of the situation. The old man's wife and daughter struggle with the emotions and lack of emotion they are experiencing while the son-in-law fights off his mistress who has come to the wake incognito, gotten drunk and nearly betrayed the relationship. He ends up sleeping with her in the woods, and while his wife never discovers her, we know that she has known all along.
Later that evening family, old friends and neighbors get so drunk they can barely walk. The son-in-law joins them bringing out a particularly fine sake for everyone to enjoy. It hardly seems that anyone has noticed the old man is dead at all until the next morning, when the mother gives an unexpected speech. She did love him after all we learn, and somehow as we learn of her love, and perhaps as the people in the room first learn of it we somehow carry a very strong hope out of the theater. This movie gives us permission to hope that even though we are idiots and fools, users and parasites, that someone may actually love us.
Even the daughter and the son-in-law look at each other with love, and although we can never know what happens after the curtain closes, I can say there was reason to believe that they lived with each other's love ever after.
Well maybe that a little too positive of a read from this otherwise cynical and often humorous social satire. But, as he illustrated in Tampopo, Itami likes happy endings, and throughout his social commentary one has the feeling that he still believes that humans are basically good creatures. Many filmmakers might be less forgiving, but Itami doesn't want us to leave the theater hating each other. Despite all that we are, there may even be a reason to love each other. That's how I felt when the credits rolled.Labels: Itami Juzo
