Reflections of the undertaker’s visit

"Encoffiner" begins with the protagonist Daigo Kobayashi's unemployment. When he reaches middle age and achieves nothing, he sells his cello and returns to his hometown with his wife. "Helping others embark on a journey of stability" - the mysterious recruitment message was a turning point in his life.

The death at the beginning of the movie is the death of dreams. The first thought that people have when facing death is often fear. Fear of the annihilation of everything, fear of unavailability, fear of the passing of beauty, fear of the unknowability of death itself.

Xiao Lin’s mentality when he first returned to his hometown was negative, a subconscious escape after his dream was shattered. After becoming an embalmer by mistake, Xiao Lin went from being disgusted and panicked at the beginning to slowly accepting it and finally realizing the meaning of death at work. Xiaolin was able to truly reconcile with his own life and complete the transcendence of life.

Japan is a country that pursues a sense of ritual. From ikebana to tea ceremony, kendo, and incense ceremony, the step-by-step sense of ritual adds a sense of cherishment and solemnity to the life process. As it is at birth, so it is at death. As a participant in the last ritual of life, the undertaker exists for the sense of ritual.

A serious and focused face, dressed in the black and white uniform of a waiter, a pair of gentle and strong hands, performing the transformation into a god amidst cold stiffness, and performing meticulously without knowing it. Dirty and sacred, humorous and awe-inspiring, nature and death are integrated in this unique etiquette, reflecting the dignity of life behind death.

Every move of the embalmer not only reflects respect for the deceased and his family, but also expresses respect for the individual life value of every unrepeatable person. Whether it's dressing up in women's clothing for a crossdresser or putting on the last touch of lipstick for your mother, it has nothing to do with religion or belief.

The significance of burial is to enable everyone to leave this world with dignity, dignity and solemnity. Regardless of whether you are rich or poor, successful or not, good or evil, when facing death, you can say a final farewell to the world in a dignified manner. This is probably the greatest respect for life. ?

"Death may be a door. Passing away is not the end, but transcendence and moving to the next journey, just like a door." We often avoid talking about death, but everyone faces death. On that day, there is no way to refuse or escape. Death is actually not terrible. It does not mean that everything will return to disillusionment and emptiness and fall into the abyss of terrible void forever.

Death is just one stop on a long road, passing through the door leading to the next stage of the journey. By being able to view death in this way, we gain a transcendent power. The title of the movie "The Embalmer" also has a translation called "The One Who Sees the Dead Off". After the embalmer helps the living and the dead say a difficult farewell, both will start their own new journeys with each other's memories. Embalmers not only send the deceased to travel to distant places, but also bring cherishment, attachment and respect to life to the living. ?

In the climax of the movie, Xiao Lin went to collect his father's body. After the death of his father, the unspoken love in the past was fulfilled with the discovery of the stone in his father's hand. Xiaolin completely forgave his father and embraced his childhood regrets. Death realized personal emotional relief and liberation, and reshaped people. Emotional connection.

During the enshrinement ceremony, the daughter painted her dead mother her favorite color, the wife left her last kiss on the face of her dead husband, and Xiao Lin’s wife witnessed Xiao Lin’s kindness to them. The bathhouse owner understood him completely after his death. Death not only disappeared coldly at this moment, but also showed its infinite tenderness because of the care and love in the world.

This kind of tenderness does not dilute the seriousness of death itself. On the contrary, it allows death to gain an understanding of life at the level of love, making life stronger and regaining the dignity it deserves. ?

Life is a cyclical process. The salmon in the river have been swimming upstream all their lives. They pursue death but also pursue life. Their death means the continuation of life after returning. The same is true for people. If death is seen as a connection from one process to another, people will continue to die and people will be born. Human life is endless in the process of life and death.

Xiao Lin's father passed away, and then Xiao Lin's wife became pregnant. In the movie, pregnancy succeeds death to complete the continuation of life. The dead can rest in peace, and the living can create new lives that will never end. The power of life, the greatness of life, and the beauty of life are revealed in this continuation.