The Funeral (Ososhiki)

Released 1985
Stars Nobuko Miyamoto, Kiminobu Okumura, Shokichi Amamiya, Shuji Otaki
Directed by Juzo Itami

The debut film from acclaimed Japanese director Juzo Itami (A Taxing Woman) shows a very untraditional side to a very traditional Buddhist ceremony. When Chizuko's ornery father unexpectedly dies, the undertaking of the three-day funeral is too much to handle. Her family and especially her husband Wabisuke (Tsutomo Yamazaki), find themselves in hilarious situation as the younger generation struggles with the complex rituals of the Buddhist ceremony that are fading fast from modern Japanese life.

Summary from www.netflix.com

I have no idea why this film was marketed as a "hilarious" comedy. It pokes fun at some of the traditional practices surrounding Japanese funerals, but the overall tone made me melancholic. This may have been a purely personal reaction on my part due to my dread about death and the similarity between this funeral and my own father's. I thought it was interesting that the rhythms and basic patterns in the Japanese funeral were very similar to an American funeral. The details were different, but the overall picture was much the same. This made it difficult for me to laugh at the "silly" traditions, because they were so universal in spirit.

This funeral was for a man who was a bad husband and father, which, coincidentally, also described my father. The film is about the imposition placed on the son-in-law by the father's death, and about how harried he becomes during the three days of preparation, wake, and funeral. Right off the bat, that made me melancholic because a man died and no one cared. 

There are a few moments of sincere emotion, but mostly it's a light-hearted depiction of what it's like to host a funeral. Boy, if that wasn't just like my trip to my father's funeral. The sad aspect of my dad's funeral was his young widow (she was exactly my age) and their two young children who would never know their father. Regardless of what a bum your dad may be, it's still better to know him, at least to some degree. We all felt sad for her and the boys, but I don't think anyone else really care that my dad was gone. He wasn't a mean person, but he wasn't a good one. In fact, he was bad in several ways: alcoholic, drug-abuser, physically abusive, in and (mostly) out of jail, etc. In my 20+ years, he had only made about two attempts to visit my brothers and me. That was ok with me, because I had a very good step-father, but it made me not care about his passing. All of this is similar to the plot in "The Funeral."

This man's daughters don't care much that he has passed, but they do cry when it eventually sinks in. There's a moment when you realize you will never see this person again, and this film does an excellent job of subtly expressing that. The same goes with his widow, who isn't terribly saddened to have lost her husband, but at the end expresses her regret and sorrow in a heart-felt speech. The overall tone made me melancholic, because we're given such a short time in life, and it would be terribly sad to have no one care when you pass. At the end of your life, you'd like to know you made a difference to your family and friends. If you haven't, you have certainly wasted your life, and nothing is sadder than a wasted life.

"The Funeral" also depicts various stages of the death rituals that disturbed me, because they were so honest and straight-forward. The harshest was when the worker at the crematorium explained they used different heat settings for different people. Babies require a low setting, or there wouldn't be any ashes left for the urn. The thought of cremating a baby makes me want to cry.

While these comments may make it sound like I didn't enjoy this film, that would be wrong. I did enjoy it. I just didn't find it very funny. Instead, it caused me to reflect on past events in my own life and future events that I will sadly have to endure. --Bill Alward, July 10, 2001