 There is an idealization of the nōkanshi as presented in the film . In all but one case , the dead are either young or already made @-@ up , such that " the viewer can easily tolerate these images on the screen " . The one corpse that had not been found for several days is never shown on screen . No bodies show the gaunt figure of one who has died after a long illness , or the cuts and bruises of an accident victim . Japanologist Mark R. Mullins writes that the gratitude shown in Departures would probably not have occurred in real life ; according to Coffinman , there " is nothing lower on the social scale than the mortician , and the truth of the matter is that [ the Japanese people ] fear the coffinman and the cremator just as much as death and the corpse " . 
