AI -- Okuribito（おくりびと）

 

Happy Monday! As I've mentioned in the past, I generally don't watch the Oscars anymore for a number of reasons, and as for last night's reason, I was out with friends for a nice if pricey Korean BBQ dinner (just wish the restaurant would accept credit cards). I've heard that there really wasn't anything cringe about this year's ceremony as there has been in the past (such as the slap heard around the world) and the big shocker was that Jimmy Kimmel and company were able to finish the program before 11 PM Eastern Daylight Time! I actually had to check things to make sure that there hadn't been some sort of terrorist attack.

I had heard beforehand that there were three Japanese movies that were in contention for Oscars, and I'm glad to hear that two of them won. Many congratulations to "Godzilla Minus One" for Best Visual Effects and "The Boy and the Heron" for Best Animated Feature. The amazing thing is though I haven't been one who watches a lot of Oscar movies, I managed to catch four such flicks in 2023: the above two, "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer". 

I wondered about putting something up to begin this week's round of KKP entries to commemorate the Oscar victories but I had already contributed articles regarding "Godzilla Minus One" and "The Boy and the Heron" back in December. Didn't want to quit quite yet so after breaking a brain cell or two, I realized that the movie "Okuribito"（Departures） had won for Best Foreign Picture back at the 2009 Oscars.

Never thought that I would see two former cute teenage singers from Japan show up on Hollywood's biggest staged event but it did happen. 

I figured that any major Japanese motion picture would have some sort of song attached to it, and sure enough, Japanese-American R&B singer AI provided one. "Okuribito" is a tenderhearted creation written by AI and composed/arranged by Joe Hisaishi（久石譲）. It's certainly a different tune for AI since "Okuribito" has a heartfelt orchestra backing up a hushed and solemn delivery by the singer. There's even some prominence given to the cellos which happened to be the instrument of profession for Masahiro Motoki's（本木雅弘）main character before transitioning to become a ritual mortician. It's a perfect fit for the tone of the story. "Okuribito" was the coupling song to AI's 18th single "So Special -Version AI-" from September 2008. 

Of course, there were a few highlights in last night's ceremonies. After his antics, John Cena has been compared here in Japan to one other local comedian with a similar shtick.