Honoring Queer Relationships and the Gender Variant Body at the End of Life
By Noach Dzmura
Published October 21, 2009, issue of October 30, 2009.
http://www.forward.com/articles/117279/In the Oscar-winning movie "Departures," Yojiro Takita shows traditional Japanese customs for preparing bodies for casketing prior to cremation. The art is beautiful, precise and utterly respectful of the deceased. From the very first scene, however, the movie-going audience's expectations of the "traditional" are ruffled. First, the film shows a contemporary Japanese society in which rather than family members, professionals hired by the funeral parlor prepare the body. Second, the lovely young woman being prepared for burial is revealed to have elements of male anatomy.
After a discreet moment of surprise, the "casketers" offer the family a choice: Which way shall we make up the deceased, as a man or as a woman? The family honors the life of the deceased by choosing to prepare her as a woman. After the service, the father bows before the casketers in gratitude for restoring the memory of his child's smile, lost during many years of family estrangement. Restoration of the smile allowed the father to recognize that happiness was found through her life's choices.
