The Funeral Blu-ray Review
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, February 7, 2023
If you're of a certain age, chances are you've had to deal with some kind of death in your family, perhaps even of one or both of your parents. In the
case of parental demise in particular, it's
one of those "life (and/or death, as the case may be) transitions" that is never easy, but has to be worked through, for better or worse. With such a
fraught emotional
environment at the core of
The Funeral, which does in fact involve a woman and her family having to plan the "goodbye party" for her
deceased father, it's kind of remarkable how sweet and often laugh out loud funny the film is. A march toward modernity often means a hasty exit
from long held traditions, and one part of both the comedy and undeniable emotional pull of this film is just such a dialectic, with focal couple Chizuko
(Nobuko Miyamoto) and Wabisuke (Tsutomu Yamazaki) are very much late 20th century types, working in Japan's television industry cranking out
commercials as the story opens, who
may be spectacularly ill prepared for anything "traditional". When Chizuko's supposedly martinet father Shinkichi Amamiya (Hideji Otaki) dies
suddenly, the same day a "big city" doctor has proclaimed him to be as healthy as a horse, Chizuko and Wabisuke are suddenly thrust into a situation
that requires both planning and the ability to deal with a number of extended family members.
Death and the formalities surrounding it, specifically in the funeral and/or burial categories, has actually been something of a staple in comedy, as
unlikely as that may sound, in everything from
The Loved
One
to another property somewhat similarly named to this one,
Death at a Funeral. What is unique about
The Funeral is its typically reserved Japanese surface quality which just
barely
masks some roiling interpersonal dynamics playing out just beneath. Some aspects, as in Wabisuke's kind of weirdly angry reaction to the
desire
of his mother-in-law Kikue (Kin Sugai) to have the funeral at a country home where she and Shinkichi had taken up residence after Wabisuke and
Chizuko had stopped living there full time, may seem underdeveloped and/or well explained, but a
lot of what ensues in this film has the
feeling of "truth", with believable motivations even within a sometimes unabashedly comic context.
The Funeral was written and directed by
Jûzô Itami, Nobuko Miyamoto's real life partner, and there's a certain "meta" aspect to the fact that Miyamoto's character in
The Funeral
is
also an actress, and indeed Wabisuke is a director. That actually ends up playing (in both senses of the word "play") into the plot since Chizuko and
Wabisuke basically have to "research their roles" as mourners and curators of a rather elaborate Buddhist ceremony. There's some very pointed
humor at work in many of these scenes, including a great sequence where the two sit down to watch what is basically the 1980's equivalent of a
Ted
Talk instructing them how to act with whomever shows up to the funeral.
Some of the many sidebars in this film may frankly tip slightly over into farce territory, but there's still enough of a solidly realistic emotional aspect
to things that even some potentially hyperbolic moments, like Wabisuke having to escape to a nearby forest for a quick assignation with his
mistress, actually play more naturalistically than might be expected. There's really solid work by the entire cast, but a lot of the most heartfelt
material probably understandably comes from Sugai, who has to navigate everything from deadpan comedy as when Kikue, kind of like her
daughter and son-in-law, is being "instructed" in proper deportment during a photo shoot, to some actually beautifully written material later in the
film where Kikue addresses at least part of what it's like to lose a lifetime partner.
There are some perhaps surprising stylistic flourishes on display throughout the film, including fun bits like forced perspective in a supposed
commercial (see screenshot 4), to a "corpse POV" sequence (see screenshot 5) to a rather striking quasi-"
Vertigo effect" moment that kind of humorously introduces a woman character on a deck.
It's a kind of playful expertise that offers some visual allure while never being overly intrusive.
The Funeral Blu-ray, Video Quality
The Funeral is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Criterion's insert
booklet contains the following information on the restoration:
The Funeral is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. This high definition digital restoration was undertaken by Itami Productions at
Imagica Entertainment Media Serices, Inc.< in Toklyo.
It's kind of interesting that a film of this vintage was shot in Academy Ratio (more or less, anyway), but that may be a subliminal tip of the hat to the
dialectic between modernity and tradition that the film's story itself repeatedly addresses. This is by and large a very nice looking transfer that
preserves abundant fine detail, especially in close-ups (look at the nice textures on the knitting in screenshot 7 for one example). The palette is
naturalistic most of the time, with only slight tips toward brown or yellow, moments which tend to be most noticeable in interior locations. A lot of the
outdoor material pops beautifully with a really warm and resplendent palette. Grain resolves naturally throughout the presentation.
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