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Here’s to a wonderful Friday evening. Tonight, I’m going to watch DEPARTURES, a Japanese film I discovered in a preview on another disc. Here’s the synopsis provided by Netflix: 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.

I think it will be great fun…and give me wonderful insight into Japanese funeral practices. Always the anthropologist! If you have a favorite death-related film to share, just add your comment below!