The Funeral

Kbudah- Torah Musah

April 21, 2014

Japanese Film

          

The Funeral is a film by Juzo Itami that was produced in 1984. It has an aspect ratio of 1.85: 1. The film begins with the father in-law of the leading actor unexpectedly dying of a heart attack. The remainder of the film moves from one thing to another over the course of a three day funeral, which had been held (as it is normal to do so) within the home of the daughter and son in-law of the deceased. There is a woman by the name of Chizuko who is played by Nobuko Miyamoto (the same actress who played as Tampopo) who is the daughter of the deceased and she has a husband by the name of Wabisuke who is played by Tsutomo Yamazaki (the main male character from Tampopo). Both Chizuko and Wabisuke play the role of actors. Chizuko’s father, Kikue Amamiya unexpectedly dies. Chizuko’s mother, Shokichi Amamiya requested that Chizuko and her husband conduct the funeral at their house. This three day funeral keeps them busy.  Despite the fact that this film is supposed to be very serious and sad, there are many comic reliefs throughout this film. The majority of The Funeral was narrated.  

            The film begins with Wabisuke narrating the events that occurred before the death of Kikue. In the beginning of the film when Wabisuke is narrating, he begins to tell us that Kikue had just come from seeing his doctor and he was in a good mood. Kikue told his wife, Shokichi that the doctors told him that he was fine. Kikue and Shokichi sit down and enjoy the meal that they have prepared. Shortly after this Kikue goes to bed and is awoken by this unbearable pain in his heart. He crawls out of his bed to the balcony. Kikue began to call out for his wife but she told him that she could not hear him and asked him to wait a minute. Shokichi finally comes to assist her husband and she notices the amount of pain that he was in. Kikue told his wife that looking out towards the ocean usually makes him feel better, but this time it did not work. Shokichi asked Kikue if she should call the doctor and he said no, maybe if he laid down the pain would stop. Kikue was eventually rushed off to the hospital, hours later he died.

            Shokichi called Chizuko and Wabisuke to tell them that Chizuko’s father died. Shokichi asked if the funeral could be held at the home of Chizuko and Wabisuke. Wabisuke was uneasy about having the funeral at their house and eventually agreed. This film review will be on the part of the film when Kikue’s body is being moved from the morgue to Chizuko and Wabisuke’s house. The clip that will be discussed is the one that shows Kukue’s body being moved from the morgue to the home of Chizuko and Wabisuke.

 In this clip the older brother of Chizuko, Wabisuke and their children have arrived at the funeral. The grandchildren, children, Kikue’s elder brother and his wife are all sitting in the waiting area of the morgue, each of them are mourning in their own way. Kikue and Shokichi’s youngest daughter is silently crying, the two grandchildren are sitting on the floor not fully aware of what is going on. The husband of the younger sister has his head down and so does his mother in-law. Kikue’s older begins to explain that he is Kikue’s older brother; he says “There were seven of us, all gone now but me”. As he says this his head remains bowed.

In this screenshot, Kikue’s family has entered the room in which he is lying.  Chizuko’s younger sister see’s the body of her deceased father and looks frightened remains in her state of mourning. She held her hands closer to her body and gripped tighter to the tissue that is her hand. Chizuko is behind her younger sister and she looks distraught.

In the clips above, the TV studio guard tells Wabisuke that he will go and pay the hospital bill. As Wabisuke and the TV studio guard walk in unison to put their cigarettes out, Wabisuke asks how much does he think the bill will be, they TV guard responded by saying “I don’t really know”. As they turn back towards the camera Wabisuke say’s “I’ve only some 200,000 yen”. The TV studio guard tells him that he hopes that it is enough and goes into the hospital. While in the hospital the guard from the TV studio begins to laugh at the amount that was being charged for the work that the hospital did. He was laughing because earlier in the film he and Wabisuke were concerned about whether or not Wabisuke had enough money to pay the hospital bill. The laughter  of the TV studio guard confused the woman behind the desk, due to this confusion she began to explain why they were being charged this particular amount. The woman behind the desk told the TV studio manager that the bill covered “It includes washing the corpse and death certificate”. The woman behind the desk did not understand why the TV studio manager was laughing. It just so happens that he was not laughing because he thought that the price was a joke and they were requesting too much. He was laughing because Wabisuke gave him 200,000 yen expecting the bill to be high and in reality it was way cheaper than they had thought. The TV studio manager counted out the amount of cash that he needed to pay and handed it to the woman behind the desk. After he took a look at the bill his laughter continued because he could not believe that the bill was way less than he and Wabisuke assumed it would be.  The woman behind the desk remained confused about the laughter of the guard from the TV studio. Those scenes were a minor example of some of the comic relief that was portrayed throughout the film.

Still tickled from the scene that occurred within the hospital the TV studio guard re-enters the morgue. As he open opens the door he is still laughing not fully taking in the fact that everyone else is in a mourning state. Not understand why he is laughing the family members turn around and look at him with both confused and sad facial expressions, they gave him a facial expression that read “Why are you laughing? This is not a laughing matter”. Once the TV studio guard took note to this, he stopped laughing and looked embarrassed. 

In the screenshots above Kikue’s family is discussing how they would transport the body from the morgue to the home of Wabisuke and Chizuko. Kikue’s family decided that they would put Kikue’s body into the coffin while they are at the morgue, transfer his body to their house and leave him in there. This confused Kikue’s older brother. In the first screenshot Kikue’s elder brother began to pace back and forth in the room due to confusion he asked “Then you take him out and out him to bed at home?”. Kikue’s brother continued to ask questions until he fully understood what was going to happen to his brother’s body. After the conversation was over Kikue’s older brother was still slightly confused but pretended to know exactly what his family members had decided to do. This was another example of comic relief.  

In this scene Kikue’s family is told that they will be moving his body into the coffin. One of the family members touched Kikue’s body and became excited because they were under the impression that Kikue was still alive. The family member announced that their grandfather was still warm. Everyone rushed over to touch his body and became very happy and excited because they thought that Kikue was still alive, they began to tell him to wake up. Kikue’s elder brother touched Kikue’s body and realized that his brother’s body wasn’t warm but the shroud that was covering him was “It’s the shroud that’s warm”.  When everyone was ready, they lifted the body of Kikue and placed him into his coffin. (This must have been extremely hard)

As Kikue’s family leaves, these four nurses came out and tell say “We’re sorry we couldn’t do more”. Each of the nurses looked extremely sympathetic and humble. After the nurses said this to Shikichi they bowed to her out of respect and watched her as she left. When I saw this scene I was confused about the nurse with her arm in the sling. I thought to myself “Was she one of the nurses that tried to revive Kikue, if so what did she do…”

In these screenshots the men are removing Kikue’s body from their car and moving it into the house. As they were doing this Kikue’s wife ran towards they and put her umbrella over the head of the TV studio guard and he coffin. As they were transporting the coffin, the men realized that it was upsidedown and turned around so that the area where Kikue’s head was located was going up the steps first.

In the screenshots above, Kikue’s body has been placed within Chizuko and Wabisuke’s home. Kikue’s older brother is under the impression that his brother’s coffin isn’t facing north like it should be. He asked Wabisuke is the coffin facing north. Being confused with the question that Kikue’s older brother asked him. Wabisuke began to question whether or not the coffin was facing in the right direction. Both Wabisuke and Kikue’s elder brother began to figure out which direction is north. It turned out that the coffin was facing north the whole time. After figuring this out all of the men moved away from the coffin and Kikue’s elder brother remained where he was. While standing in front of the coffin, Kikue’s brother was still trying to make sure that his brother’s coffin was facing north like it should. He once again touched his head out of confusion and continued to debate with himself whether or not top of the coffin where his brothers head was, was facing north. After a while he was satisfied and put himself as ease by deciding that his brother’s head was facing north.

Juzo Itami’s The Funeral was a film filled with everything from comic reliefs to sad scenes to overly dramatic scenes. This film was not as sad as I expected it to be but I am not disappointed. Juzo Itami  provided a film that you can both laugh and cry at.  With comic reliefs such as, the hospital scene and the confusion of Kikue’s brother.  This is a film that everyone can enjoy because it is filled with so many different genres.