Masahiro Motoki was initially hesitant to take on the role of an undertaker in Yojiro Takita's Departures. Now he's thanking his lucky stars that he did.
The film has won much international acclaim, including a best foreign-language film Oscar, and led to Motoki, 43, winning the best actor award at the third Asian Film Awards held in Hong Kong on Monday.
In the film, Motoki (left) plays cellist Daigo, who takes a job at a funeral home after his orchestra is disbanded, preparing corpses for burial as an apprentice to a 'nokanshi' (undertaker). 'When I first read about what an undertaker does, I thought it was a profession in the shadows,' Motoki said.
But after meeting some funeral directors and watching them work, the actor began to understand that, far from being an undignified job, it was a 'highly respectable' profession that gave practitioners 'a great sense of satisfaction'. It also gave him the motivation he needed to pursue the role.
'When I went to the mortuary, I helped clean the body of an elderly woman. That's when the whole profession became very real to me, which in turn helped me internalise my character.' Motoki also discovered that it's actually not an unpopular job. He said in Japan there are many young people, including women, involved in the funeral business and that this is a good thing.
'I believe living close with death when you are young makes you appreciate your life more,' he said, adding, tongue in cheek, that Japan's funeral industry has excellent long-term prospects owing to the country's ageing society.
Motoki also said there are many differences between the fictional funeral industry depicted in the film and how it operates in real life. In the film, for example, Daigo does not need much instruction before he becomes an undertaker, but in real life a great deal more training is required and the work is much more difficult.'It is not as fancy as it is portrayed in the film,' he said.