When Yojiro Takita’s Departures took the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film back in February, it caught a lot of people off guard, especially since it was going up against such critical favourites as Waltz with Bashir and The Class. Well, next month we’ll finally get to see what all the fuss is about when Regent Releasing puts the Japanese film in North American theatres.

Departures (Okuribito) is about a young man who plays the cello in an orchestra, only to have the orchestra disband, leaving him unemployed. He moves back to his hometown and takes a job at a funeral home where he prepares bodies for burial. Although most people are disgusted by it, he ends up taking great joy in the work. Both dramatic and funny, it does seem like this could be sort of a Japanese take on Six Feet Under. If that’s not enough, writer Kundo Koyama previously worked on the cult classic cooking show Iron Chef! Awesome. Departures hits select theatres starting on May 29th, and expands to Canada on June 12th. Check out the trailer below.