Reference
Film review by Bryan Hynes: Hempfield HS- Landisville, PA
Juzu Itami’s film Ososhiki (The Funeral) is a satire exploring two cultural conflicts facing contemporary Japanese. First is the tension between traditional social norms and modern secular realities. Second is the individual’s role in a society that historically emphasizes Confucian virtues especially family and group harmony. The Japan Academy Awards winner for best picture, screenplay, and director of 1984, The Funeral is both a successful comedy, and a window upon the society of post-war Japan during the prosperous 1980s.
The majority of the film takes place at actor Wabisuke Inoue’s seaside home where his father-in-law’s funeral is being held. Here, along the windswept Izu coast, relatives, children, cats, and neighbors create a flurry of activity around the coffin of the recently deceased Shokichi Amamiya. In the days leading up to and including the funeral, mourners come and go; consume vast amounts of sushi, beer, and sake; do their best to understand funerary etiquette; and occasionally put down their cigarettes long enough to pop open the casket and take a gander at the deceased.
Even in the isolated seaside retreat, technology is forever intruding on the serenity of the funeral. Inoue and his wife, Chizuko, watch how-to videos on the correct etiquette for a funeral and repeatedly rehearse funeral pleasantries. Inoue’s personal assistant relentlessly pursues funeral-goers with a video camera while creating an artsy documentary of the wake. The sacred and the outrageous collide when the incessant ringing of a telephone interrupts the chanting of a Buddhist priest at the funeral, but no one is able to immediately answer the phone as extended formal kneeling has made everyone’s legs fall asleep. One of the final scenes of the film has the majority of the family sneak around the back of the crematorium to watch with awe as their relative is efficiently rendered into ash by a modern oven. In the final scene, the widow, Kikue delivers a eulogy in which she laments not being next to her husband when he died as she was forced out of the room at the end to make space for the hospital staff and their machines.
One reoccurring theme in the film is money. From the price of dying at the hospital, to comparison-shopping for a casket, and the cost of bento boxes for the mourners, the cost of death is foremost in everyone’s mind. Two scenes stuck out to me which concerned the issue of money. First is a scene where Inoue’s manager and the local undertaker debate what is the appropriate amount for a famous Tokyo actor to contribute to a Buddhist priest for his father-in-law’s funeral. The other is the scene is one in which a gust to sea breeze scatters dozens of envelopes containing money donated by the mourners. The envelopes are retrieved with great enthusiasm from the trees and brush outside of the home where the funeral is being held.
It is my opinion that this film is useful for the teaching of some aspects of the culture of post-war Japan. Assigning the complete film would be appropriate for college students. However, I do not recommend this film in its entirety for viewing by high school students. One somewhat graphic scene of sex between Inoue and his mistress Yashiko, along with some coarse language (albeit subtitled), excessive drinking, and endless cigarette smoking limit the use of this film in secondary schools. With that caveat, portions of the film could easily be used in the classroom to illustrate Japanese social norms, especially those surrounding a funeral. In a general way, there are numerous scenes that point out the importance of tradition and etiquette as well (e.g., bowing, use of incense in ritual, pouring of tea/beer, etc.) The film also provides glimpses into gender roles and expectations of marriage that could lead to class discussions if paired with an article or lecture on the same.
