title: Racket (sports equipment)

text: A denser pattern is often considered to deliver more control, at the expense of spin potential. A more open pattern is often believed to offer greater potential for power and spin. However, how much power is produced by a player can be strongly influenced by how a player adapts to the characteristics of the racket. Some players may hit harder with a dense string pattern, producing faster shots because of the added control from the dense pattern. Rackets, including those of much of the wood era, are marked with a recommended string tension range. The basic rule is that a lower tension creates more power (from the trampoline effect) and a higher string tension creates more control (less string deformation which results in a more predictable the power and angle of the departure from the string bed.) Some professionals used small-headed rackets with flexible-material strings (natural gut) strung at very high tension. Examples include Pete Sampras and Björn Borg. Some used large-headed rackets with very inflexible-material strings (kevlar). Andre Agassi is an example. Many professionals during the standard wood era strung at relatively low tension and used natural gut string; both decisions were to increase the trampoline effect for more power. By contrast, almost every professional player today uses the much stiffer polyester string in their much stiffer rackets which also have larger heads and which tend to be lighter. Madeline Hauptman sold a line of rackets, called the MAD RAQ, which featured a Star of David pattern (a six-pointed figure consisting of two interlaced equilateral triangles), as it used three strings instead of two for stringing the racket. This pattern is used in snowshoes. This stringing pattern was said to feature less string notching, improving string lifespan. It was even claimed that many pro shops refused to carry the racket because less string breakage would reduce string and stringing service sales. It has also been claimed that the racket is more difficult to string than a two string racket. However, the Wilson T-2000-type requires a great deal more time for stringing than a typical racket and rackets of that series were very popular. Whatever the cause of the failure of the MAD RAQ in the marketplace, it was the only time a snowshoe pattern was used in tennis. Hauptman switched her racket line to a two string diamond pattern (PowerAngle). This pattern had already been used in much earlier rackets but had not had much popularity. It is said to be easier to string than the MAD RAQ but does not have the benefit of reduced string notching, at least not to the same degree. The claim is that this diagonal pattern offers more comfort than a traditional square pattern.


title: Racket (sports equipment)

text: The stiffest graphite racket that has been sold is the Prince More Game MP, which is rated at 80 RA on the industry-standard Babolat measuring equipment. The Prince More series used two pieces (a top side and bottom side of the racket, or a left side and a right side) and no grommet strip. Prince had briefly used a design without a grommet strip in an early version of its "original" graphite oversize. The most famous user of a More series racket was Martina Navratilova, who returned to play doubles in her 40s, using a Prince More Control DB (a midplus) for her initial wins in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon and the Australian Open with Leander Paes. She had used the stiffer More Game MP prior. Navratilova later switched to a design by Warren Bosworth (the founder of Bosworth Tennis) which had a customized asymmetric grip and an unusual geometric head shape. Stiffer rackets typically offer more power and control at the expense of increased ball shock, which can lead to injury or tennis elbow aggravation. Typically, power and control are at odds. However, in the case of stiff rackets, less energy is dissipated by the racket deforming, transmitting it back to the ball. Control is improved because there is less deformation. However, a player's overall power level may decrease due to the need to moderate ball striking effort to reduce discomfort and even injury. Although known as a hard hitter in her younger years, in her 40s she was known more as a precision player who used finesse (and especially tactics) more than power. In fact, the last doubles partner she won a major with in mixed, Bob Bryan, remarked on how slow her serve was, despite how effective she was on the court. Navratilova also used string that was much softer than what anyone else on tour used (thick uncoated natural gut), to help compensate for the stiffness of her racket. The vastly higher injury rate in tennis (when compared with the wood era) is, in part, due to the increase in stiffness, both of the racket and of the strings.


title: Racket (sports equipment)

text: Real tennis uses wooden rackets and cork-filled balls. It is a very different sport from today's lawn tennis.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by "Billboard" magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to "Billboard" by stations that are members of the Adult Contemporary radio panel. The chart debuted in "Billboard" magazine on July 17, 1961. Over the years, the chart has gone under a series of name changes, being called Easy Listening , Middle-Road Singles , Pop-Standard Singles , Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks and Adult Contemporary .


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: The "Billboard" Easy listening chart, as it was first known, was born of a desire by some radio stations in the late 1950s and early 1960s to continue playing current hit songs but distinguish themselves from being branded as "rock and roll" stations. "Billboard" had written articles about this trend during the time, and the magazine's editors decided to publish a separate chart for these songs beginning in 1961. The magazine offered an "Easy Listening" programming guide beginning January 9, 1961, which continued until the numbered chart appeared in July. The first No. 1 song on the "Billboard" Easy Listening chart was "The Boll Weevil Song" by Brook Benton.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: From 1961 to 1965, this chart was compiled from the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart by removing songs that were deemed rock and roll by the magazine and re-ranking the remaining songs. ("Record World's" equivalent "non-rock" chart followed the same criteria from 1967 through 1971.) Beginning in 1965, the Easy Listening chart would begin to be compiled by a method similar to the one used for other "Billboard" singles charts: reported playlists from radio stations airing the format as well as sales data submitted by record stores. By the early 1990s, automatic song detection and barcode sales information had begun to be the norm for most of the "Billboard" charts, although by this time the AC chart was based entirely on radio airplay and no longer incorporated retail sales reports. Currently the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart is compiled in much the same way as for other radio formats.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: The chart was known as the Easy Listening chart until 1962, when it was renamed Middle-Road Singles. In 1964, the name changed again, this time to Pop-Standard Singles. After alternating the name of this chart twice more in less than a year, Easy Listening was again chosen as the chart name in 1965 when the change in compilation occurred. In April 1979, the Easy Listening chart officially became known as Adult Contemporary, and those two words have remained consistent in the name of the chart ever since.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: In 1996, "Billboard" created a new chart called Adult Top 40, which reflects radio station programming that exists somewhere between "adult contemporary" music and "pop" music. Although they are sometimes mistaken for each other, the Adult Contemporary chart and the Adult Top 40 chart are separate charts, and songs reaching one chart might not reach the other. In addition, the term "hot AC" refers to another subgenre of radio programming that is distinct from the Adult Contemporary chart, despite the apparent similarity in name.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: In the early years of the Easy Listening chart, the top song on the chart was generally always a Top 10 pop hit as well. The method for compiling the chart at that time allowed some rock and roll artists, such as Lesley Gore and The Drifters, to make the chart on occasion with their softer or ballad releases, regardless of whether Easy Listening and middle of the road radio stations were actually playing those songs. In 1965, no No. 1 pop hits appeared on the Easy Listening chart. After 1965, differences between the Hot 100 chart and the Easy Listening chart became more pronounced. Better reflecting what middle of the road stations were actually playing, the composition of the chart changed dramatically. As rock music continued to harden, there was much less crossover between the Hot 100 and Easy Listening chart than there had been in the early half of the 1960s.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: Several No. 1 Easy Listening hits of the late 1960s only "Bubbled Under" on the pop chart (for example, Andy Russell's 1967 version of "It's Such a Pretty World Today" that peaked at #119), or (as was the case with John Gary's 1967 hit "Cold") failed even to "Bubble Under." In 1967, only one single reached No. 1 on both charts "Somethin' Stupid" by Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra. This trend began to reverse by the end of the decade.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: Notable artists with multiple No. 1 songs on this chart during the 1960s include Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Connie Francis, Dean Martin, Andy Williams, The 5th Dimension, and Glen Campbell. "Love Is Blue" by Paul Mauriat held the top of the Easy Listening chart for 11 weeks in 1968, which remained the longest stay at No. 1 until 1993.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: The Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts became more similar again toward the end of the 1960s and into the early and mid-1970s, when the texture of much of the music played on Top 40 radio once more began to soften. Contemporary artists who recorded adult-appeal music, such as The Carpenters, Barbra Streisand, Barry Manilow, Anne Murray, John Denver, and Helen Reddy began to be played more often on Top 40 radio. Much of the music recorded by singer-songwriters such as James Taylor, Carole King, and Janis Ian got as much, if not more, airplay on this format than on Top 40 stations. A few of the acts that came of age as pop artists targeting younger audiences in the 1960s and early 1970s started moving toward easy listening as they matured (Neil Sedaka, Paul Anka and The Osmonds being prime examples). Easy Listening radio also began including songs by artists who had begun in other genres, such as rock and roll, R&B, or even country (it was during this time frame that a number of songs charted on the country and easy listening charts, often not on the Hot 100).


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: The longest stay at No. 1 on the Easy Listening chart in the 1970s was "Time Passages" by Al Stewart, which remained atop the chart for ten weeks. More common, however, was a high turnover rate at the summit of the Easy Listening survey during this decade. Over a three-year period from 1973 through 1975, there were 100 No. 1 songs on this chart, and most remained atop the chart for a single week. Among songs which topped both the Easy Listening (renamed Adult Contemporary in 1979) and pop charts in the 1970s were "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and "Please Mr. Postman" by The Carpenters, "Song Sung Blue" by Neil Diamond, "Annie's Song" by John Denver, "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" by Stevie Wonder, "I Honestly Love You" and "Have You Never Been Mellow" by Olivia Newton-John, "Love Will Keep Us Together" by Captain & Tennille, and "You Light Up My Life" by Debby Boone.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: Some of the artists who achieved success on the adult contemporary chart in the 1980s were already established names, such as Elton John, Chicago, Barbra Streisand, Dan Fogelberg, Sheena Easton, Kenny Rogers, and Dionne Warwick, while newer acts such as Whitney Houston, Madonna, Air Supply, Lionel Richie, and Gloria Estefan also made an impact on the chart. The amount of crossover between the AC chart and the Hot 100 has varied based on how much the passing pop music trends of the times appealed to adult listeners. Not many disco or new wave songs were particularly successful on the AC chart during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and much of the hip-hop and harder rock music featured on CHR formats later in the decade would have been unacceptable on AC radio.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: No song spent more than six weeks at No. 1 on this chart during the 1980s, with nine songs accomplishing that feat. Two were by Lionel Richie, "You Are" in 1983 and "Hello" in 1984, which also reached No. 1 on the Hot 100. Other songs reaching the summit on both the AC and pop charts were "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper, "I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder, "Live to Tell" by Madonna, "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" by Michael Jackson (his only No. 1 on both charts), "Seasons Change" by Exposé, "Look Away" by Chicago, "Tell Her About It" by Billy Joel, and "Right Here Waiting" by Richard Marx.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: With changes in methodology made to the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart in the early 1990s, many of the secondary charts began to experience differences as well. Certain songs achieved higher debut positions on the Hot 100 due to the new formulas used to calculate chart positions, and lengthy stays at number one became more common. This trend began to surface on the AC chart in 1993 after "Billboard" began using data received from Broadcast Data Systems as its measure for calculating the number of airplay songs on adult contemporary stations. Two consecutive singles ("The River of Dreams" by Billy Joel and "Said I Loved You...But I Lied" by Michael Bolton) logged twelve weeks apiece atop the AC chart, surpassing "Love Is Blue"'s previous mark of eleven weeks at number one. As the decade progressed, other songs had even longer stays at number one, including "Change the World" by Eric Clapton (13 weeks, 1996), "Un-Break My Heart" by Toni Braxton (14 weeks, 1997), "Because You Loved Me" by Celine Dion (19 weeks, 1996) and "You'll Be In My Heart" by Phil Collins (19 weeks, 1999).


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: In addition to Collins, who has had significant success on this chart, other artists with multiple number ones in the 1990s include Mariah Carey, Michael Bolton, Whitney Houston, and Shania Twain. Newer female singer-songwriters such as Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Merchant, Jewel, Melissa Etheridge, and Sheryl Crow also broke through on the AC chart during this time.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: A notable pattern that developed during the 2000s has been for certain pop songs to have lengthy runs on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart, even after the songs have fallen off the Hot 100. Songs such as "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me" by Taylor Swift, "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer, "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles and "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt have remained on the AC chart for many weeks, in some cases over a year after the song was originally released. An article on MTV's website by Corey Moss describes this trend: "In other words, AC stations are where pop songs go to die a very long death. Or, to optimists, to get a second life." One theory states that many adult contemporary stations play less newer music because they also give ample airtime to hits of the past, so the de-emphasis on new songs slows the progression of the AC chart. Also, certain program directors have asserted that AC is a song-based format, as opposed to other radio formats that are infused with singer-based programming, so there is no guarantee that a new single by a certain artist will appeal to the listeners.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: The record for most weeks atop the Adult Contemporary chart is 36 achieved by Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B in their 2018 collaboration, "Girls Like You". A number of other songs have logged more than 20 weeks apiece at the summit; The 2003, Uncle Kracker's collaboration with Dobie Gray on Gray's own 1973 hit, Drift Away spent 28 weeks at No. 1. Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" from 2017 has logged 24 weeks at No. 1 on the AC chart. In addition, Celine Dion's "A New Day Has Come" from 2002 and Kelly Clarkson's 2004 song "Breakaway". Both songs spent 21 weeks at No. 1 on the AC chart.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: Through 2022, Celine Dion has logged 87 weeks atop the AC chart, which is the most for any artist; Adele has moved into second place with 83 weeks, Ed Sheeran holds third place and the most for a solo male artist with 67 weeks, followed by Elton John with 63 weeks. Maroon 5 is the current top group, and fifth overall, with 62 weeks. Elton John also has the most chart-toppers on this survey with 18, while the Carpenters hold the record for the most chart toppers among groups with 15, and Celine Dion has the most #1's among female artists with 11.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: In 2011, Billboard announced the top 100 performing songs on the AC chart and the top 50 performing artists to celebrate the 50th anniversary on the chart. The top song on the list was "Truly Madly Deeply" by Savage Garden, which hit number one for 11 weeks in 1998, spent a total of 58 weeks in the top 10, and spent 123 weeks on the chart. That chart longevity would only be passed by another one of their songs, "I Knew I Loved You" (which ranked at #21 on that list), from their album "Affirmation". Elton John was nominated the top performing AC artist through that time, and also holds the record for the most No. 1 AC singles, top 10 singles, and singles on the chart. His song "The One" was ranked on No. 53 on the top 100 performing songs on the AC chart.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: Relatively few urban contemporary and hip-hop artists manage to successfully cross over to AC, although there were a few exceptions in the later part of the 2000s decade, such as Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable", Fergie's ballad "Big Girls Don't Cry", Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy", Rihanna's "Take a Bow", and Timbaland's remix of OneRepublic's "Apologize". R&B artists who have achieved major success on the AC chart in the past include Dionne Warwick, Aaron Neville, Diana Ross (with her solo career), James Ingram, Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: Crossover from the country charts has also been common on the AC chart since the chart began. Among the country stars who had a number of singles cross over to the AC chart (and the pop chart as well) from the 1960s through the 1980s included Brenda Lee, Ray Price, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Anne Murray, Ronnie Milsap, Barbara Mandrell, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Eddie Rabbitt, Crystal Gayle, Willie Nelson, and Juice Newton. The huge growth of country music as a radio format in the 1990s brought a number of new country crossovers onto the AC airwaves, including Martina McBride, Wynonna Judd, LeAnn Rimes, Shania Twain, Billy Joel, Lonestar, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Garth Brooks. More recently, a new wave of country performers has been crossing over to AC, including Tim McGraw, the Dixie Chicks (who topped the AC chart with their cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide"), Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Sugarland, Lady Antebellum, Jason Aldean (whose AC success came by way of his duet with Kelly Clarkson, "Don't You Wanna Stay"), The Band Perry, Sam Hunt, and Dan + Shay.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: Contemporary Christian music has also been relatively successful in crossing over to mainstream radio. In the mid-1980s, the most successful CCM artist at the time, Amy Grant, crossed over into secular music with the 1985 single "Find a Way", which became a Top Ten AC hit and a No. 1 Christian single simultaneously. In the 1990s and into the 2000s, other artists such as Lifehouse, MercyMe, Natalie Grant, Kathy Troccoli, Sixpence None the Richer, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Michael W. Smith have crossed in between the Christian and secular worlds with little disapproval from their fan bases.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: The Adult Contemporary Recurrent charts ranks airplay from the adult contemporary radio stations in the United States chart that have reached recurrent criteria. Descending songs are moved to recurrent status based upon the following three-tiered system: if they rank below the top five after 52 weeks, if they rank below the top 10 after 26 weeks, or if they rank below the top 15 after 20 weeks.


title: Adult Contemporary (chart)

text: Exceptions are sometimes made, usually on a case-by-case basis. Occasionally an older song is re-released (for example, featured on a current movie soundtrack and given a renewed promotional push from a record label) or a song can take an extended amount of time to climb to position fifteen. "Billboard" chart managers ultimately make the decision about which songs can remain on the current chart in such cases.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: The idea for "Departures" arose after Motoki, affected by having seen a funeral ceremony along the Ganges when travelling in India, read widely on the subject of death and came across "Coffinman". He felt that the story would adapt well to film, and "Departures" was finished a decade later. Because of Japanese prejudices against those who handle the dead, distributors were reluctant to release it—until a surprise grand prize win at the Montreal World Film Festival in August 2008. The following month the film opened in Japan, where it went on to win the Academy Prize for Picture of the Year and become the year's highest-grossing domestic film. This success was topped in 2009, when it became the first Japanese production to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: "Departures" received positive reviews, with aggregator Rotten Tomatoes indicating an 80% approval rating from 108 reviews. Critics praised the film's humour, the beauty of the encoffining ceremony, and the quality of the acting, but some took issue with its predictability and overt sentimentality. Reviewers highlighted a variety of themes, but focused mainly on the humanity that death brings to the surface and how it strengthens family bonds. The success of "Departures" led to the establishment of tourist attractions at sites connected to the film and increased interest in encoffining ceremonies, as well as adaptation of the story for various media, including manga and a stage play.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) loses his job as a cellist when his orchestra is disbanded. He and his wife Mika (Ryōko Hirosue) move from Tokyo to his hometown in Yamagata, where they live in his childhood home that was left to him when his mother died two years earlier. It is fronted by a coffee shop that Daigo's father had operated before he ran off with a waitress when Daigo was six; since then the two have had no contact. Daigo feels hatred towards his father and guilt for not taking better care of his mother. He still keeps a "stone-letter"—a stone which is said to convey meaning through its texture—which his father had given him many years before.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Daigo finds an advertisement for a job "assisting departures". Assuming it to be a job in a travel agency, he goes to the interview at the NK Agent office and learns from the secretary, Yuriko Kamimura (Kimiko Yo), that he will be preparing bodies for cremation in a ceremony known as encoffinment. Though reluctant, Daigo is hired on the spot and receives a cash advance from his new boss, Sasaki (Tsutomu Yamazaki). Daigo is furtive about his duties and hides the true nature of the job from Mika.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: His first assignment is to assist with the encoffinment of a woman who died at home and remained undiscovered for two weeks. He is beset with nausea and later humiliated when strangers on a bus detect an unsavoury scent on him. To clean himself, he visits a public bath which he had frequented as a child. It is owned by Tsuyako Yamashita (Kazuko Yoshiyuki), the mother of one of Daigo's former classmates.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Over time, Daigo becomes comfortable with his profession as he completes a number of assignments and experiences the gratitude of the families of the deceased. Though he faces social ostracism, Daigo refuses to quit, even after Mika discovers a training DVD in which he plays a corpse and leaves him to return to her parents' home in Tokyo. Daigo's former classmate Yamashita (Tetta Sugimoto) insists that the mortician find a more respectable line of work and, until then, avoids him and his family.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: After a few months, Mika returns and announces that she is pregnant. She expresses hope that Daigo will find a job of which their child can be proud. During the ensuing argument, Daigo receives a call for an encoffinment for Mrs Yamashita. Daigo prepares her body in front of both the Yamashita family and Mika, who had known the public bath owner. The ritual earns him the respect of all present, and Mika stops insisting that Daigo change jobs.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Sometime later, they learn of the death of Daigo's father. Daigo experiences renewed feelings of anger and tells the others at the NK office that he refuses to deal with his father's body. Feeling ashamed of having abandoned her own son long ago, Yuriko tells this to Daigo in an effort to change his mind. Daigo berates Yuriko and storms out before collecting himself and turning around. He goes with Mika to another village to see the body. Daigo is at first unable to recognize him, but takes offence when local funeral workers are careless with the body. He insists on dressing it himself, and while doing so finds a stone-letter that he had given to his father, held tight in the dead man's hands. The childhood memory of his father's face returns to him, and after he finishes the ceremony, Daigo gently presses the stone-letter to Mika's pregnant belly.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Japanese funerals are highly ritualized affairs which are generally—though not always—conducted in accordance with Buddhist rites. In preparation for the funeral, the body is washed and the orifices are blocked with cotton or gauze. The encoffining ritual (called "nōkan"), as depicted in "Departures", is rarely performed, and even then only in rural areas. This ceremony is not standardized, but generally involves professional ritually preparing the body, dressing the dead in white, and sometimes applying make-up. The body is then put on dry ice in a casket, along with personal possessions and items deemed necessary for the trip to the afterlife.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Despite the importance of death rituals, in traditional Japanese culture the subject is considered unclean as everything related to death is thought to be a source of "" (defilement). After coming into contact with the dead, individuals must cleanse themselves through purifying rituals. People who work closely with the dead, such as morticians, are thus considered unclean, and during the feudal era those whose work was related to death became "burakumin" (untouchables), forced to live in their own hamlets and discriminated against by wider society. Despite a cultural shift since the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the stigma of death still has considerable force within Japanese society, and discrimination against the untouchables has continued.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Until 1972, most deaths were dealt with by families, funeral homes, or "". , about 80% of deaths occur in hospitals, and preparation of the bodies is frequently done by hospital staff; in such cases, the family often does not see the body until the funeral. A 1998 survey found that 29.5% of the Japanese population believed in an afterlife, and a further 40% wanted to believe; belief was highest . Belief in the existence of a soul (54%) and a connection between the worlds of the living and the dead (64.9%) was likewise common.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: In the early 1990s, a 27-year-old Motoki and his friend travelled to India; just before going, at the friend's recommendation he read Shin'ya Fujiwara's "Memento Mori" (Latin for "remember that you will die"). While in India, he visited Varanasi, where he saw a ceremony in which the dead were cremated and their ashes floated down the Ganges. Witnessing this ceremony of death against a backdrop of bustling crowds going about their lives deeply affected Motoki. When he returned to Japan, he read numerous books on the subject of death, and in 1993 wrote a book on the relationship between life and death: "Tenkuu Seiza—Hill Heaven". Among the books he read was Shinmon Aoki's autobiographical , which exposed Motoki to the world of the "" for the first time. Motoki said he found a sense of mystery and near-eroticism to the profession that he felt had an affinity with the film world.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Getting funding for the project was difficult because of the taboos against death, and the crew had to approach several companies before "Departures" was approved by Yasuhiro Mase and Toshiaki Nakazawa. According to the film's director, Yōjirō Takita, a consideration in taking on the film was the age of the crew: "we got to a certain point in our lives when death was creeping up to become a factor around us". Kundō Koyama was enlisted to provide the script, his first for a feature film; his previous experience had been in scripting for television and stage. Takita, who had begun his career in the pink film genre before entering mainstream filmmaking in 1986 with "Comic Magazine", took on the director's role in 2006, after producer Toshiaki Nakazawa presented him with the first draft of the script. In a later interview he stated "I wanted to make a film from the perspective of a person who deals with something so universal and yet is looked down upon, and even discriminated against". Although he knew of the encoffining ceremony, he had never seen one performed.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Production of "Departures" took ten years, and the work was ultimately only loosely adapted from "Coffinman"; later revisions of the script were worked on collaboratively by the cast and crew. Although the religious aspects of funerals were important in the source work, the film did not include them. This, together with the fact that filming was completed in Yamagata and not Aoki's home prefecture of Toyama, led to tensions between the production staff and the author. Aoki expressed concern that the film was unable to address "the ultimate fate of the dead". The first edition of the book was broken into three parts; the third, "Light and Life", was an essay-like Buddhist musing on life and death, regarding the "light" seen when one perceived the integration of life and death, that is absent from the film. Aoki believed the film's humanistic approach did away with the religious aspects that were central to the book—the emphasis on maintaining connections between the living and the dead that he felt only religion could provide—and refused to allow his name and that of his book to be used. For the new title, Koyama coined the term ' as a euphemism for ', derived from the words ' ("to send off") and ' ("person").


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: While the book and film share the same premise, the details differ considerably; Aoki attributed these changes to the studio making the story more commercial. Both feature a protagonist who endures uneasiness and prejudice because of his job as a ', undergoes personal growth as a result of his experiences, and finds new meaning in life when confronted with death. In both, the main character deals with societal prejudices and misunderstandings over his profession. In "Coffinman", the protagonist was the owner of a pub-café that had gone out of business; during a domestic squabble his wife threw a newspaper at him, in which he found an ad for the ' position. He finds pride in his work for the first time when dealing with the body of a former girlfriend. Koyama changed the protagonist from a bar owner to cellist as he wanted cello orchestration for the film score. Other differences included moving the setting from Toyoma to Yamagata for filming convenience, making the "letter-stone" a greater part of the plot, and an avoidance of heavier scenes, such as religious ones and one in which Aoki talks of seeing "light" in a swarm of maggots. Koyama also added the subplot in which Daigo is able to forgive his late father; taken from a novel he was writing, it was intended to close the story with "some sense of happiness".


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Motoki, by then in his early 40s and having built a reputation as a realist, was cast as Daigo. Veteran actor Tsutomu Yamazaki was selected for the role of Sasaki; Takita had worked with Yamazaki on "We Are Not Alone" (1993). Although the character of Mika was initially planned as being the same age as Daigo, the role went to pop singer Ryōko


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Hirosue, who had previously acted in Takita's "Himitsu" ("Secret") in 1999. Takita explained that a younger actress would better represent the lead couple's growth out of naivety. In a 2009 interview, Takita stated that he had cast "everyone who was on my wish list".


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Motoki studied the art of encoffinment first-hand from a mortician, and assisted in an encoffining ceremony; he later stated that the experience imbued him with "a sense of mission ... to try to use as much human warmth as I could to restore [the deceased] to a lifelike presence for presentation to her family". Motoki then drilled himself by practising on his talent manager until he felt he had mastered the procedure, one whose intricate, delicate movements he compared to those of the Japanese tea ceremony. Takita attended funeral ceremonies to understand the feelings of bereaved families, while Yamazaki never participated in the encoffinment training. Motoki also learned how to play a cello for the earlier parts of the film.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: To provide realistic bodies while preventing the corpses from moving, after a lengthy casting process the crew chose extras who could lie as still as possible. For the bath house owner Tsuyako Yamashita, this was not possible owing to the need to see her alive first, and a search for a body double was unfruitful. Ultimately, the crew used digital effects to transplant a still image of the actor during the character's funeral scene, allowing for a realistic effect.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: The non-profit organization Sakata Location Box was established in December 2007 to handle on-location matters such as finding extras and negotiating locations. After deciding to shoot in Sakata, Location Box staff had two months to prepare for the eighty members of the film crew. Negotiations were slow, as many local property owners lost interest after learning that the filming would involve funeral scenes; those who agreed insisted that shooting take place outside of business hours.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Toyama was both the setting of "Coffinman" and Takita's home prefecture, but filming was done in Yamagata; this was largely because the national Nōkan Association, headquartered in Hokkaido, had a branch office in Sakata. Some preliminary scenes of snowy landscapes were shot in 2007, and primary filming began in April 2008, lasting 40 days. Locations included Kaminoyama, Sakata, Tsuruoka, Yuza, and Amarume. The NK Agent office was filmed in a three-storey, Western-style building in Sakata built between the mid-Meiji and Taishō periods (1880s–1920s). Originally a restaurant named Kappō Obata, it went out of business in 1998. The Kobayashis' café, called Concerto in the film, was located in Kaminoyama in a former beauty salon. From a hundred candidates, Takita chose it for its atmosphere as an aged building with a clear view of the nearby river and surrounding mountain range. The scene of the shooting of the training DVD took place in the Sakata Minato-za, Yamagata's first movie theatre, which had been closed since 2002.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: The soundtrack to "Departures" was by Joe Hisaishi, a composer who had gained international recognition for his work with Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. Before shooting began, Takita asked him to prepare a soundtrack which would represent the separation between Daigo and his father, as well as the mortician's love for his wife. Owing to the importance of cellos and cello music in the narrative, Hisaishi emphasized the instrument in his soundtrack; he described the challenge of centring a score around the cello as one of the most difficult things he had ever done. This score was played during shooting, which according to Takita "allowed [the crew] to visualize many of the emotions in the film" and thus contributed to the quality of the finished work.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: As they are the movie's "central dramatic piece", the encoffining ceremonies in "Departures" have received extensive commentary. Mike Scott, for instance, wrote in "The Times-Picayune" that these scenes were beautiful and heartbreaking, and Nicholas Barber of "The Independent" described them as "elegant and dignified". James Adams of "The Globe and Mail" wrote that they were a "dignified ritual of calming, hypnotic grace, with sleights of hand bordering on the magicianly". As the film continues, Paul Byrnes of "The Sydney Morning Herald" opined, the audience gains an improved knowledge of the ceremony and its importance. Viewers see that the ceremonies are not simply about preparing the body, but also about "bring[ing] dignity to death, respect to the deceased and solace to those who grieve", through which the encoffiners are able to help repair broken family ties and heal damage done to those left behind.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: There is an idealization of the "" 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".


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: In a montage, scenes of Daigo playing his childhood cello while sitting outdoors are interspersed with scenes of encoffining ceremonies. Byrnes believes that this scene was meant to increase the emotional charge of the film, and Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" considered it a "beautiful fantasy scene" through which the camera is "granted sudden freedom" from the generally standard shots. Yoshiko Okuyama of the University of Hawaii at Hilo found that Daigo's deft movements while playing the cello mirrored the high level of professionalism which he had reached. Several reviewers, such as Leigh Paatsch of the "Herald Sun", questioned the need for the shot. Throughout the film's soundtrack, cello music remains dominant. Takita drew parallels between the instrument and the encoffining ceremony, stating that


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Byrnes found that "Departures" used the symbol of the cherry blossom, a flower which blooms after the winter only to wither soon afterwards, to represent the transience of life; through this understanding, he wrote, Japanese people attempt to define their own existence. Natural symbols are further presented through the changing seasons, which "suggest delicate emotional changes" in the characters, as well as the letter-stones, which represent "love, communication, [and] the baton being passed from generation to generation". The film's settings are used to convey various sensations, including the solitude of the countryside and the intimacy of the public bath house. The colour white, manifested through snow, chrysanthemums, and other objects, is prominent in the film; Okuyama suggests that this, together with the classical music and ritualized hand gestures, represents the sacredness and purity of the death ceremonies.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: "Departures" incorporates aspects of humour, an "unexpected" complement to the theme of death which Ebert suggested may be used to mask the audience's fears. Betsy Sharkey of the "Los Angeles Times" opines that, through this use of humour, the film avoids becoming too dark and instead acts as a "warmhearted blend" of whimsy and irony. This humour manifests in a variety of manners, such as a scene in which "a mortified Daigo, naked except for a pair of adult diapers, is the reluctant model" for an educational video regarding the encoffining process, as well as a scene in which Daigo discovers that the person he is preparing is a trans woman. Takita stated that the addition of humour was deliberate, as "humans are comical by nature", and that the humour did not conflict with the film's darker themes.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Several critics discussed the theme of death found in "Departures". Scott highlighted the contrast between the taboo of death and the value of jobs related to it. He also noted the role of the encoffiner in showing "one last act of compassion" by presenting the dead in a way which preserved proud memories of their life. Initially, Daigo and his family are unable to overcome the taboos and their squeamishness when faced with death. Daigo is alienated from his wife and friends owing to traditional values. Ultimately it is through his work with the dead that Daigo finds fulfilment, and, as Peter Howell of the "Toronto Star" concluded, viewers realize that "death may be the termination of a life, but it's not the end of humanity". Okuyama writes that, in the end, the film (and the book on which it was based) serves as a "quiet yet persistent protest" against the discrimination which people who deal with death continue to face in modern Japan: death is a normal part of life, not something repulsive.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Along with this theme of death, Takita believed "Departures" was about life, about finding a lost sense of feeling human; Daigo gains a greater perspective on life and realises the diversity of people's lives only after encountering them in death. This life includes family bonds: Daigo's coming to terms with his father is a major motif, encoffinment scenes focus on the living family members rather than the dead, and even in the NK Agent office, conversation often revolves around family issues. Mika's pregnancy is the catalyst for her reconciliation with Daigo.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Ebert writes that, as with other Japanese films such as "Tokyo Story" (Yasujirō Ozu; 1953) and "The Funeral" (Juzo Itami; 1984), "Departures" focuses on the effect of death on the survivors; the afterlife is not given much discussion. He considered this indicative of a "deep and unsensational acceptance of death" in Japanese culture, one which is to be met not with extreme sorrow, but with contemplation. Takita stated that he intended to focus on the "dialogue between people who have passed away and the families that survive them". The film touches on the question of the afterlife: the cremator likens death to "a gateway", and Okuyama writes that in this sense the cremator is a gatekeeper and the encoffiners are guides.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Byrnes found that "Departures" leads one to question the extent of modernity's effect on Japanese culture, noting the undercurrent of "traditional attitudes and values" which permeated the film. Although the encoffining ceremony was traditionally completed by the dead person's family, a decreased interest in it opened a "niche market" for professional encoffiners. Okuyama wrote that, through this film, Takita was filling a "spiritual loss" caused by the departure from tradition in modern Japan. Tadao Sato connected this theme of modernity to that of death, explaining that the film's unusually non-bitter treatment of death demonstrated an evolution in Japanese feelings about life and death. He considered the film's treatment of "" as an artistic rather than religious ceremony to reflect the agnostic attitudes of modern Japan.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: The taboo subject of "Departures" made prospective distributors wary of taking on the film. Surveys conducted at pre-release screenings placed it at the bottom of the list of films audiences wanted to see. Ultimately, the film's debut at the Montreal World Film Festival in August 2008, which was rewarded with the festival's grand prize, provided the necessary incentive for distributors to select "Departures"; it finally received its domestic Japanese release on 13 September 2008. Even then, owing to the strong taboo against death, Takita was worried about the film's reception and did not anticipate commercial success, and others expressed concern that the film lacked a clear target audience.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: This fear was misplaced; "Departures" debuted in Japan at fifth place, and during the fifth week of its run hit its peak position at third place. It sold 2.6 million tickets in Japan and generated 3.2 billion yen ($32 million) in box office revenue in the five months after its debut. The film was still showing in 31 theatres when its success at the Academy Awards in February 2009 renewed interest; the number of screens on which it was showing was increased to 188 and the film earned another ¥2.8 billion ($28 million), making a total of ¥6 billion ($60 million). This made "Departures" the highest-grossing domestic film and 15th top-grossing film overall for 2008. Executive producer Yasuhiro Mase credited this success to the effects of the Great Recession on Japan: viewers who were seeking employment after recently being downsized empathized with Daigo.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: From the beginning an international release of the film was intended; as English is considered a key language in international film festivals, English subtitles were prepared. The translation was handled by Ian MacDougall. He believed that the workings of the mortician's world were as far from the experience of most Japanese as from that of a non-Japanese audience. As such he felt a faithful translation was best, without going far to accommodate foreign audiences to unfamiliar cross-cultural elements.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: In September 2008, ContentFilm acquired the international rights to "Departures", which by that time had been licensed for screening in countries such as Greece, Australia, and Malaysia; the film was ultimately screened in 36 countries. North American distribution was handled by Regent Releasing,


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: and "Departures" received a limited release in nine theatres beginning on 29 May 2009. Overall, the film earned almost $1.5 million during its North American run before closing on 24 June 2010. In the United Kingdom, "Departures" premiered on 4 December 2009 and was distributed by Arrow Film Distributors. The film attained a worldwide gross of nearly $70 million.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Before "Departures" premiered, a manga adaptation by Akira Sasō was serialized in twelve instalments in the bi-weekly "Big Comic Superior", from February to August 2008. Sasō agreed to take on the adaptation as he was impressed by the script. He had the opportunity to view the film before beginning the adaptation, and came to feel that a too-literal adaptation would not be appropriate. He made changes to the settings and physical appearances of the characters, and increased the focus on the role of music in the story. Later in 2008 the serial was compiled in a 280-page volume released by Shogakukan.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: On 10 September 2008, three days before the Japanese premiere of "Departures", a soundtrack album for the film—containing nineteen tracks from the film and featuring an orchestral performance by members of the Tokyo Metropolitan and NHK Symphony Orchestras—was released by Universal Music Japan. Pop singer Ai provided lyrics to music by Hisaishi for the image song "Okuribito"; performed by Ai with an arrangement for cellos and orchestra, the single was released by Universal Sigma and Island Records on 10 September 2008 along with a promotional video. Sheet music for the film's soundtrack was published by KMP in 2008 (for cello and piano) and Onkyō in 2009 (for cello, violin, and piano).


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Shinobu Momose, a writer specializing in novelizations, adapted "Departures" as a novel. It was published by Shogakukan in 2008. That year the company also released "Ishibumi" ("Letter-Stone"), an illustrated book on the themes of the film told from the point of view of a talking stone; this book was written by Koyama and illustrated by Seitarō Kurota. The following year Shogakukan published an edition of Koyama's first draft of the screenplay. A stage version of the film, also titled "Departures", was written by Koyama and directed by Takita. It debuted at the Akasaka ACT Theater on 29 May 2010, featuring kabuki actor Nakamura Kankurō as Daigo and Rena Tanaka as Mika. The story, set seven years


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: A dual-layer DVD release, with special features including trailers, making-of documentaries, and a recorded encoffining ceremony, was released in Japan on 18 March 2009. A North American DVD edition of "Departures", including an interview with the director, was released by Koch Vision on 12 January 2010; the film was not dubbed, but rather presented with Japanese audio and English subtitles. A Blu-ray edition followed in May. This home release received mixed reviews. Franck Tabouring of DVD Verdict was highly complimentary toward the film and the digital transfer, considering its visuals clean and sharp and the audio (particularly the music) "a pleasure to listen to". Thomas Spurlin, writing for DVD Talk, rated the release as "Highly Recommended", focusing on the "unexpected powerhouse" of the film's quality. Another writer for the website, Jeremy Mathews, advised readers to "Skip It", finding the DVD an apt presentation of the source material—which he considered to "reduce itself to clumsy, mug-filled attempts at broad comedy and awkward, repetitive tear-jerker scenes". Both DVD Talk reviews agreed that the audio and visual quality were less than perfect, and that the DVD's extra contents were poor; Mathews described the interview as the director answering "dull questions in a dull manner".


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: "Departures" received generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes sampled 108 reviewers and judged an 80% approval rating, with an average score of 7.06 out of 10. The website's critical consensus states, "If slow and predictable, "Departures" is a quiet, life affirming story". The aggregator Metacritic gives the film 68 out of 100, based on 27 reviews.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Initial reviews in Japan were positive. In "Kinema Junpo", Tokitoshi Shioda called "Departures" a turning point in Takita's career, a human drama capturing both laughter and tears, while in the same publication Masaaki Nomura described the film as a work of supple depth that perhaps indicated a move into Takita's mature period, praising the director for capturing a human feeling from Motoki's earnest encoffining performance. Writing in the "Yomiuri Shimbun", Seichi Fukunaga complimented Takita for using a moving, emotive story laden with humour to reverse prejudice against a taboo subject. He commended the performances of Motoki and Yamazaki, particularly their playing the serious Daigo against the befuddled Sasaki.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: In the "Asahi Shimbun", Sadao Yamane found the film admirably constructed and extolled the actors' performances. Yamane was especially impressed by the delicate hand movements Motoki displayed when he performed the encoffinment ceremony. Tomomi Katsuta in the "Mainichi Shimbun" found "Departures" a meaningful story that made the viewer think about the different lives people live, and the significance of someone dying. Writing in the same newspaper, Takashi Suzuki thought the film memorable but predictable, and Yūji Takahashi opined that the film's ability to find nobility in a prejudiced subject was an excellent accomplishment. Shōko Watanabe gave "Departures" four out of five stars in "The Nikkei" newspaper, praising the actors' unforced performances.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Following the success of "Departures" at the Academy Awards, critic Saburō Kawamoto found the film to show a Japan that the Japanese could relate to, in that, in a nation whose customs put great weight on visits to ancestral graves, a death was always a family affair. He believed the film had a samurai beauty to it, with its many scenes of families sitting "seiza". Critic gave the film a 90% rating, and credited the performances of the two leads for much of the film's success. He praised its emotional impact and its balance of seriousness and humour, but was more critical of the father–son relationship, which he considered overdone. Maeda attributed the film's international success, despite its heavily Japanese content, to its clear depiction of Japanese views on life and death. He found the film's conceptual scale to have an affinity to that of Hollywood (something he considered lacking in most Japanese films).


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Reviewer Takurō Yamaguchi gave the film an 85% rating, and found the treatment of its subject charming. He praised its quiet emotional impact and humour, the interweaving of northern Japan scenery with Hisaishi's cello score, and the film's Japanese spirit. Media critic found a moving beauty in the dextrous hand movements Sasaki teaches Daigo for preparing bodies, and believed that a prior reading of the original script would deepen the viewer's understanding of the action. Mark Schilling of "The Japan Times" gave the film four stars out of five, praising the acting though criticizing the apparent idealization of the encoffiners. He concluded that the film "makes a good case for the Japanese way of death."


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Internationally, "Departures" has received mixed—mostly positive—reviews. Ebert gave the film a perfect four stars, describing it as "rock-solid in its fundamentals" and highlighting its cinematography, music, and the casting of Yamazaki as Sasaki. He found that the result "functions flawlessly" and is "excellent at achieving the universal ends of narrative". Derek Armstrong of AllMovie gave the film four stars out of five, describing it as "a film of lyrical beauty" which is "bursting with tiny pleasures". In a four-star review, Byrnes described the film as a "moving meditation on the transience of life" which showed "great humanity", concluding "it's a beautiful film but take two hankies." Howell gave the film three stars out of four, praising its acting and cinematography. He wrote that "Departures" "quietly subverts aesthetic and emotional expectations" without ever losing its "high-minded intent". In a three-and-a-half star review, Claudia Puig of "USA Today" described "Departures" as a "beautifully composed" film which, although predictable, was "emotional, poignant" and "profoundly affecting".


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Philip French of "The Observer" considered "Departures" to be a "moving, gently amusing" film, which the director had "fastidiously composed". Sharkey found it an "emotionally wrenching trip with a quiet man", one which was well cast with "actors who move lightly, gracefully" in the various settings. In "Entertainment Weekly", Owen Gleiberman gave the film a B−, considering it "tender and, at times, rather squishy", though certain to affect anyone who had lost a parent. Barber found "Departures" to be "heartfelt, unpretentious, [and] slyly funny", worth watching (though ultimately predictable). Mike Scott gave the film three and a half stars out of four, finding that it was "a surprisingly uplifting examination of life and loss", with humour which perfectly complemented the "moving and meaningful story", but lent itself to characters "mug[ging] for the camera".


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: Meanwhile, Kevin Maher of "The Times" described "Departures" as a ""verklempt" comedy" with wearisome "push-button crying", though he considered it saved by the quality of the acting, "stately" directing, and "dreamy" soundtrack. Another mixed review was published in "The Daily Telegraph", which described the film as a "safe and emotionally generous crowd-pleaser" that was not worthy of its Academy Award. Philip Kennicott wrote in "The Washington Post" that the film was "as polished as it is heavy-handed", predictable yet ready to break taboos, immersed in death yet incapable of escaping "the maddening Japanese taste for sentimentality". In "Variety", Eddie Cockrell wrote that the film offered "fascinating glimpses" of the encoffining ceremony but should have had a much shorter runtime. Paatsch gave "Departures" three stars out of five, describing it as a "quaintly mournful flick" that "unfolds with a delicacy and precision that slowly captivates the viewer" but considering some scenes, such as the montage, "needlessly showy flourishes". Edward Porter of "The Sunday Times" wrote that the film's success at the Academy Awards could be blamed on "a case of the Academy favouring bland sentimentality".


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: "The A.V. Club" Keith Phipps gave "Departures" a C−, writing that though it featured "handsome shots of provincial life" and encoffining scenes with a "poetic quality", ultimately the film "drips from one overstated emotion to the next". A. O. Scott wrote in "The New York Times" that the film was "perfectly mediocre", predictable, and banal in its combination of humour and melodrama. Despite its sometimes touching moments, he considered "Departures" "interesting mainly as an index of the Academy’s hopelessly timid and conventional tastes". Tony Rayns of "Film Comment" gave a scathing review in which he denounced the script as "embarrassingly clunky and obvious", the acting as merely "adequate", and the film as but a "paean to the good-looking corpse". Adams gave "Departures" two out of four stars, praising the emotionally and visually arresting scenes of encoffinments and "loving attention to the textures, tastes and behaviours of semi-rural Japan" but condemning the predictability of the plot; he wrote that "Forty-five minutes in, [viewers have] prepared a mental checklist of every turn that Daigo Kobayashi will face, then negotiate – and be danged if Takita doesn't deliver on every one".


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: At the 32nd Japan Academy Prize ceremony held in February 2009, "Departures" dominated the competition. It received a total of thirteen nominations, winning ten, including Picture of the Year, Screenplay of the Year (Koyama), Director of the Year (Takita), and Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Motoki). In the Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role category, Hirosue lost to Tae Kimura of "All Around Us", while in the Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction category "Departures" Tomio Ogawa lost to "Paco and the Magical Book" Towako Kuwashima. Hisaishi, nominated for two Outstanding Achievement in Music awards, won for his scoring of Studio Ghibli's animated film "Ponyo". In response to the wins, Motoki said "It feels as if everything miraculously came together in balance this time with Okuribito".


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: "Departures" was submitted to the 81st Academy Awards as Japan's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film award. Although eleven previous Japanese films had won Academy Awards in other categories, such as Best Animated Feature or Best Costume Design, the as-yet unattained Best Foreign Language Film award was highly coveted in the Japanese film industry. "Departures" was not expected to win, owing to strong competition from the Israeli and French submissions (Ari Folman's "Waltz with Bashir" and Laurent Cantet's "The Class", respectively), but was ultimately the victor at the February 2009 ceremony. This was considered a surprise by several film critics, and "The New York Times" David Itzkoff termed "Departures" "The Film That Lost Your Oscars Pool for You". Motoki, who was expecting the "wonderful" Israeli submission to win, was also surprised; he described himself as a "hanger-on who just observes the ceremony", and regretted "not walk[ing] with more confidence" upon his arrival.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: "Departures" received recognition at a variety of film festivals, including the Audience Choice Award at the 28th Hawaii International Film Festival, the Audience Choice Award at the 15th Vilnius International Film Festival, the Grand Prix des Amériques at the 32nd Montreal World Film Festival, and Best Narrative Film at the 20th Palm Springs International Film Festival. Motoki was selected as best actor at several ceremonies, including at the Asian Film Awards, the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, and the Blue Ribbon Awards; he was also viewers' choice for best actor at the Golden Rooster Awards. At the 29th Hong Kong Film Awards, "Departures" was selected as Best Asian Film, beating three Chinese films and "Ponyo". Following the 21st Nikkan Sports Film Award ceremony, in which "Departures" won Best Film and Best Director, Takita expressed surprise at the film's awards, saying "I did not know how well my work would be accepted." By December 2009 the film had won 98 awards.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: After the film's success, Sakata Location Box set up a hospitality service called "Mukaebito"—a pun on the film's Japanese title indicating "one who greets or picks up" another, rather than "one who sends off". The service maintains shooting locations and provides maps of these locations for tourists. In 2009, Location Box opened the building that served as the NK Agent office to the public. For a fee, visitors could enter and view props from the film. Under a job creation program, between 2009 and 2013 the organization received ¥30 million from Yamagata Prefecture and ¥8 million from Sakata City for the building's maintenance and administration. The site attracted nearly 120,000 visitors in 2009, though numbers quickly fell; in 2013 there were fewer than 9,000 visitors. Safety fears due to the building's age led to the Sakata municipal government ending the organization's lease, and the building was closed again at the end of March 2014. At the time, the City Tourism division was considering options, such as limiting visits to the first two floors. The building used as the Concerto café has been open to the public since 2009 as the Kaminoyama Concerto Museum, and the Sakata Minato-za cinema has also been opened to tourists. Takita's hometown of Takaoka, Toyama, maintains a Film Resources Museum; staff have reported that at times over a hundred Takita fans visit per day.


title: Departures (2008 film)

text: The film's success generated greater interest in encoffining and the '. Even the model of hearse driven in the film was merchandised: the Mitsuoka Limousine Type 2-04, a smaller, less expensive version of the film's vehicle, was put on the market on 24 February 2009. The manufacturer, Mitsuoka Motors, is located in Takita's home prefecture of Toyama. In 2013, Kouki Kimura, from a family of ', founded the Okuribito Academy together with nurse and entrepreneur Kei Takamaru. It offers training in encoffining, embalming, and related practices.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: Tony Rena Snell Jr. (born November 10, 1991) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the New Mexico Lobos. He was drafted with the 20th overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: Born in Watts, California, Snell moved to Phoenix, Arizona before his senior year to finish high school at Westwind Preparatory Academy. Snell was the starting shooting guard for New Mexico in his sophomore and junior seasons, helping lead the Lobos to back-to-back Mountain West Conference (MWC) regular season and conference tournament championships as well as NCAA tournament bids.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: Snell attended Martin Luther King High School in 2008–09, where he and teammate Kawhi Leonard, a future two-time NBA Finals MVP, led the Wolves to a 30–3 season and a number 7 national ranking in the MaxPreps/National Guard computer rankings. Snell averaged 14 points, seven rebounds, four blocks, and three assists per game. In 2009 Snell enrolled at Westwind Preparatory Academy in Phoenix, where he averaged 19.5 points, 10 rebounds, 8.8 assists, 2.7 steals, and 1.8 blocks. At Westwind he was a teammate of Jamaal Franklin, who went on to play for San Diego State University and was drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies in 2013.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: In 2009, ESPN scouting reports called Snell "one of the top sleepers on the West Coast" and a "diamond in the rough." Snell committed to play for the New Mexico Lobos on September 15, 2009, and signed in November 2009.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: The 2010-11 Lobo squad was young and inexperienced, led by lone senior Dairese Gary and UCLA transfer Drew Gordon. Snell was one of four freshmen playing significant minutes, along with Kendall Williams, Alex Kirk, and Cameron Bairstow, one of the most accomplished recruiting classes in Lobo history. The team had a roller-coaster season, starting 10-1 and later winning four straight twice, but also losing four straight and six of nine. They beat number 3 BYU in Provo late in the season, but lost to the Cougars in the MWC tournament. The Lobos received a bid to the 2011 National Invitation Tournament and beat UTEP before losing at Alabama to finish the season 22–13.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: Snell played in all but one game, averaging 4.4 points and two rebounds. He scored in double-figures four times and led the team in scoring twice. He had a breakout performance with 16 points against then-number 9 BYU, hitting four three-pointers, followed two games later by a season-best 19, with five threes, against Wyoming. He started seven games, averaging 8.3 points in his starts, and in one seven-game stretch he averaged 10.3 points a game and shot 17-31 (.548) from three. A sprained ankle late in the season limited his play and cut his production, as he managed just 11 points in the last eight games of the season.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: The Lobos in 2011-12 were anchored by the dominant inside play of Gordon, who tallied 19 double-doubles and whose 11.1 rebounds per game were fourth in the nation. The team allowed just 59.3 points per game, the lowest ever for the Lobos in the shot clock era, and they held opponents under 40% shooting for the first time since the 1964–65 season. Their scoring defense was fourteenth nationally, and their defensive field goal percentage was seventh.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: Snell was among several young guards battling for playing time going into the season, as senior and three-year starter Phillip McDonald was hampered by injury. Snell earned a starting spot after "tearing it up in practice" and playing well in preseason exhibition games. He was capable of explosive scoring, but he was also prone to becoming tentative and falling into slumps. He scored in double-figures in twenty games, including three games over 20, twice scoring 24, hitting six threes in one of those games; yet he also scored six or fewer points in eleven games, going scoreless for two straight games at one point. For the season, Snell averaged 10.5 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 2.3 assists a game.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: The Lobos won thirteen straight early in the season on the way to a 15–2 record. They lost their next two games to No. 16 San Diego State and at No. 14 UNLV but then won seven straight, avenging those losses and climbing into the top twenty with a 22–4 record. After two upset losses they settled for a share of the MWC regular season championship. In the conference tournament semi-finals, the Lobos won at No. 20 UNLV, with Snell accounting for 15 points, six rebounds, and six assists. The Lobos won the championship game over number 18 San Diego State, as Snell scored 14, shooting 4-6 from three, and was named to the All-Tournament team. New Mexico received a five-seed in the NCAA tournament, but Snell was a non-factor, shooting a combined 1-9 (1-8 from three) and scoring just three points as the Lobos beat Long Beach State then lost to Final Four-bound Louisville. The Lobos finished the season 28–7, and Snell was named Honorable Mention All-Mountain West.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: The 2012-13 Lobos again relied on tough defense and a balanced scoring attack, often coming from behind to grind out close wins. The team held opponents to sixty points a game and again held them under 40% shooting, while going 10–2 in games decided by six or fewer points. While Williams led the team at just 13.3 points a game, four players averaged in double-figures, and seven Lobo players led the team in scoring in individual games. Snell led the team in ten games, including five straight during a late stretch when he averaged 19.8 a game and shot 22-39 (.564) from three-point range. On the season, Snell averaged 12.5 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 2.9 assists a game, and he led the team in three-point shooting percentage and, for the second straight season, free throw percentage. Over his career, he was the fifth most accurate free throw shooter in Lobo history.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: The Lobos began the season 12–0, including a win over number 19 Connecticut, and climbed to No. 16 in the polls. They lost a couple of games to eventual NCAA tournament teams South Dakota State and St. Louis, but also won at No. 8 Cincinnati. After a bad loss at No. 20 San Diego State, they won nine out of ten and clinched the MWC regular season title, while reaching No. 11. Snell assumed more of a leadership role, an adjustment due to his quiet demeanor — his mother termed him the "silent assassin," a nickname that Lobo fans embraced. He scored 20 points or more in six games, 25 or more in three games, but he continued to struggle at times, scoring under ten points in 13 games, with a low of five. In the MWC tournament, Snell averaged 17.7 points a game while shooting 12-20 (.600) from three-point range. In the semi-final game against San Diego State, he made three three-pointers in 55 seconds as the Lobos built a large lead. In the championship game at UNLV, he shot 8-11 from the field, 5-7 from three, at one point scoring 13 straight points for the Lobos as they pulled away to seal their second straight tourney title. Snell was named tournament MVP and ESPN national player of the week for his performance. After the season, he was named Third Team All-MWC. New Mexico entered the NCAA tournament ranked No. 10 and received a three-seed. They suffered a disappointing upset to Harvard, however, to finish the season 29–6. The Lobos shot poorly, with Snell going 4–12, 1-6 from three, for just nine points.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: Snell chose to forgo his senior season and declared for the NBA draft. While his college numbers were not spectacular, NBA scouts noted that the Lobo's balanced offense limited his output, and they were impressed by his length, outside shooting, and greatly improved defense.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: Snell was selected with the 20th overall pick in 2013 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls. On July 10, 2013, he signed with the Bulls and joined them for 2013 NBA Summer League, where he averaged 11.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.2 steals in five games. As a rookie in 2013–14, Snell appeared in 77 games for the Bulls, averaging 4.5 points and 1.6 rebounds per game.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: In July 2014, Snell re-joined the Bulls for the 2014 NBA Summer League, where he averaged 20.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists in five games, earning All-NBA Summer League first team honors. He was reunited with former Lobo teammates Bairstow (2014 Bulls' draftee) and Williams on the Bulls' summer league squad. On February 10, 2015, he scored a career-high 24 points in the Bulls' 104–86 win over the Sacramento Kings.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: Snell became the Bulls' starting small forward to begin the 2015–16 season. Over the first 25 games of the season, Snell started in all but four. However, on December 21, he was removed from the team's regular rotation and over the next three games, he was credited with a "DNP" in two of the three. With teammate Doug McDermott out injured on December 28 against the Toronto Raptors, Snell got his chance to re-establish himself in the rotation, coming off the bench to score an equal team-high 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting in 27 minutes of action, helping the Bulls defeat the Raptors 104–97.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: On October 17, 2016, Snell was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Michael Carter-Williams. After missing the Bucks' season opener with a sprained left ankle, Snell made his debut for the team in their second game of the season on October 29, 2016, scoring six points in 21 minutes as a starter in a 110–108 win over the Brooklyn Nets. On December 26, 2016, he made a career-high six three-pointers and set a season high with 20 points in a 107–102 loss to the Washington Wizards. On February 24, 2017, in 28 minutes of play against the Utah Jazz, Snell recorded zero counting stats, falling just 22 seconds short of Joel Anthony’s record for most playing time in a game without recording a point, rebound, assist, steal or block. On March 6, 2017, he had 18 of his season-high 21 in the first half of the Bucks' 112–98 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. He surpassed that mark on March 28 with a career-high 26 points in a 118–108 win over the Charlotte Hornets. On April 22, 2017, he set playoff career highs with 19 points and five 3-pointers in an 87–76 loss to the Toronto Raptors in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series; the loss tied the series at 2–2.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: On July 31, 2017, Snell re-signed with the Bucks to a four-year, $44 million contract. The deal reportedly includes a player option after the third year and reachable incentives that would push his total earnings to $46 million. On March 23, 2018, he matched his season high with 18 points in a 118–105 win over the Chicago Bulls.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: On June 20, 2019, Snell traded, along with the draft rights to Kevin Porter Jr., to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for Jon Leuer.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: On November 20, 2020, Snell and Khyri Thomas were traded to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for Dewayne Dedmon. On March 11, 2021, Snell made a game winning three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Hawks a 121–120 victory over the Toronto Raptors, capping off a 15-point fourth quarter comeback.


title: Tony Snell (basketball)

text: On February 8, 2022, Portland traded Snell, Larry Nance Jr. and CJ McCollum to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for Josh Hart, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Tomáš Satoranský, Didi Louzada, a protected 2022 first-round draft pick, the better of New Orleans' and Portland's 2026 second-round draft picks and New Orleans' 2027 second-round draft pick.


title: Genmaicha

text: The sugar and starch from the rice cause the tea to have a warm, full, nutty flavor. It is considered easy to drink and to make the stomach feel better.


title: Genmaicha

text: Tea steeped from genmaicha has a light yellow hue. Its flavor is mild and combines the fresh grassy flavor of green tea with the aroma of the roasted rice. Although this tea is based on green tea, the recommended way to brew this tea is different: the water should be at about 80–85 °C (176–185 °F), and a brewing time of 3–5 minutes is recommended, depending on desired strength.


title: Genmaicha

text: Genmaicha is also sold with matcha (powdered green tea) added to it. This product is called (lit. genmaicha with added powdered tea). "Matcha-iri genmaicha" has a similar flavor to plain genmaicha, but the flavor is often stronger and the color more green than light yellow.


title: Genmaicha

text: In South Korea, a very similar tea is called "hyeonminokcha" (; "brown rice green tea"), while the word "hyeonmicha" (), which is a cognate of "genmaicha", refers to an infusion of roasted brown rice in boiling water.


title: Smart Forfour

text: The Smart Forfour (stylized as "smart forfour") is a city car (A-segment) marketed by Smart over two generations. The first generation was marketed in Europe from 2004 to 2006 with a front-engine configuration, sharing its platform with the Mitsubishi Colt. The second generation was marketed in Europe from 2014 after an eight-year hiatus, using rear-engine or rear electric motor configurations. It is based on the third-generation Renault Twingo, which also forms a basis for the third-generation Smart Fortwo. A battery electric version was marketed as the EQ Forfour beginning in 2018.


title: Smart Forfour

text: Petrol-powered Forfour was discontinued in 2019 as production of all Smart internal combustion models ended at that time. Production of the EQ Forfour ended in 2021. It was indirectly replaced by the larger Smart #1 crossover.


title: Smart Forfour

text: The car was produced at the NedCar factory in the Netherlands in conjunction with Mitsubishi Motors. This is the same factory that produced Volvo 300 in the 1970s and 1980s and the Volvo S40 in the 1990s. To save production costs, the Smart Forfour shared almost all of its components with the 2003 Mitsubishi Colt. This includes the chassis, suspension and a new generation of MIVEC petrol engines, ranging from the three-cylinder to the four-cylinder with power up to .


title: Smart Forfour

text: Depending on the version, it came equipped with ESP, ABS (standard on all models), 14-inch or 15-inch alloy wheels or, optional, 16-inch ones (17-inch on the Brabus model), safety cell, a panoramic sunroof (or, optional, electric sunroof), height-adjustable driver seat, illuminated glove box, radio/CD-player, fog lights, front and side airbags (standard on all models), alarm, automatic air conditioning, electric front windows, and as options - multifunctional steering wheel, shift paddles, heated front seats, lounge seats, navigation and color display with telephone keypad or DVD navigation with a larger display, CD changer, window bags, rain sensor, automatic lights on the system (in poor visibility), leather package.


title: Smart Forfour

text: The sales brochures state that the interior "is designed around the concept of a lounge"; to test this, "Top Gear" presenters spent 24 hours inside the Forfour. They said they would not buy the car due to its high price and poor driving dynamics compared to its rivals.


title: Smart Forfour

text: Following Smart's initial success for the fortwo in the U.S., and due to surprisingly high popularity in the Forfour, former Mercedes-Benz exec Rainer Schmückle revealed that officials were considering relaunching the car.


title: Smart Forfour

text: Forfour Brabus is a version of Smart Forfour tuned by Brabus with a turbocharged Mitsubishi 4G15 engine rated , more than the Mitsubishi Colt CZT. It can reach a maximum speed of and accelerate from zero to in 6.9 seconds.


title: Smart Forfour

text: The common direct injection (cdi) diesel engine, is a three-cylinder Mercedes-Benz engine derived from the four-cylinder used in the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, and is available with either or .


title: Smart Forfour

text: All models could be equipped with either a 5-speed manual or a 6-speed automatic (Softouch) transmission, except the 1.0-liter version and the Brabus version, which could only use 5-speed manual transmissions.


title: Smart Forfour

text: The second-generation Forfour was jointly developed with Renault, reportedly sharing approximately 70% of its parts with the third-generation Renault Twingo, while retaining the trademark hemispherical steel safety cell, marketed as the "Tridion" cell. The Fortwo is assembled at Smartville, and the Forfour is manufactured alongside the Renault Twingo 3 in Novo Mesto, Slovenia. Smartville, where the W450 and W451 build series have been manufactured, underwent a 200 million euro upgrade beginning in mid-2013, in preparation for the C453 Fortwo. The second generation Forfour, along with the new Fortwo went on sale in October, shortly after their debuting at the Paris Motor Show.


title: Smart Forfour

text: The Smart Fortwo and Forfour is offered with a choice of manual transmission or double-clutch automatic — and no longer with the Getrag automated manual. Both models feature a wider track, overall width increased by 10 cm (over the second generation Fortwo), improved ride and improved noise isolation.


title: Smart Forfour

text: For the third generation, "Autoweek" projected that Daimler consulted with Ford to learn about Ford's 1.0-litre turbocharged inline 3-cylinder engine, in turn sharing information about its own Euro 6 stratified lean-burn gasoline engines.


title: Smart Forfour

text: The launch model "edition #1" was a limited period version, presented in Tempodrom, Berlin. Delivery is scheduled to commence in November 2014 with the Forfour 52 kW and 66 kW models to follow in December 2014, and twinamic dual-clutch transmission models in the spring of 2015.


title: Smart Forfour

text: Smart Fourjoy concept includes Smart's signature Tridion cell in polished full-aluminium, tail lights integrated in the Tridion cell, spherical instrument cluster, raised smart lettering milled from aluminium on the side skirts, pearlescent white on the bumpers, front bonnet and tailgate; headlamps without a glass cover, U-shaped daytime running lights, LED front and tail lights, transparent petroleum-coloured moulded wind deflector at the top of the front windscreen, on the A-pillars on the sides and on the rear roof spoiler; rear dark chrome seats, a piping-like line with the same petroleum colour as the plexiglass accents on the exterior, instrument panel with convex surface and touch-sensitive operating functions, spherical instrument cluster, single-spoke steering wheel, two smartphones mounted on the dashboard and on the centre tunnel, 55 kW magneto-electric motor, 17.6kWh lithium-ion battery, 22 kW onboard charger, two electrically driven skateboards on the roof, helmets under the rear seats, a high-definition camera.


title: Smart Forfour

text: A concept version, never manufactured, of the Smart Forfour was converted as a plug-in hybrid by third-party vendors. The lithium-ion battery can propel the vehicle up to and last on its own for up to with an engine that combined a , , three-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine and two high-efficiency permanent-magnet electric motors. It received an award from the Energy Saving Trust for the "Ultra Low Carbon Car Challenge" project.


title: Smart Forfour

text: In 2013, Daimler projected it would produce an electric version of the Smart Forfour during the second generation of production, for launch in 2015. The battery-electric smart forfour electric drive entered mass-production in 2017 at Renault's Novo Mesto plant in Slovenia and was marketed in Europe, competing with other electric city cars such as the MG ZS EV, Renault Twingo Z.E (with which it shares many components), and Volkswagen E-up!, including the SEAT Mii electric and Škoda Citigo-e iV, rebadged versions of the E-up!. In 2019, it was restyled and rebranded to Smart EQ ForFour, after Chinese automobile manufacturer Geely took a stake in Daimler, becoming a 50–50 partner in Smart, and Smart pivoted to market electric cars only. The EQ ForFour was discontinued in early 2022.


title: Smart Forfour

text: It used a rear-mounted electric motor with a peak torque of and is fitted with a 17.6 kW-hr battery. The EQ Forfour has a rated consumption of 13.1 kWh/100 km (combined) and achieves range using the NEDC test cycle, dropping to on the WLTP cycle. As tested, "Autocar" had a range of , using "a gentle touring driving style", dropping to when not driving as carefully. The kerb weight of the electric forfour is , approximately heavier than an equivalent petrol-powered forfour.


title: Smart Forfour

text: 248,856 second-generation Forfour have been produced, 14,9% of them (32,326 units) being electric models.


title: Telephone numbers in Belgium

text: A telephone number in Belgium is a sequence of nine or ten digits dialed on a telephone to make a call on the Belgian telephone network. Belgium is under a full number dialing plan, meaning that the full national number must be dialed for all calls, while it retains the trunk code, '0', for all national dialling.


title: Telephone numbers in Belgium

text: Exception: Some "special services" use 3 or 4 digits with no area or trunk codes: e.g.; 112 and 100 (fire brigade and ambulance); 101 (police); 1307 (info in French) or 1207 (info in Dutch), etc.


title: Telephone numbers in Belgium

text: "112" is an emergency number for contacting the fire brigade, ambulance and police in all 27 countries of the European Union. Operators will help the caller in the country's native language, in English, or the language of any neighbouring country.


title: Telephone numbers in Belgium

text: The telephone numbering plan allows for numbers have varying lengths (9 digits for landline numbers, and 10 digits for mobile numbers).


title: Telephone numbers in Belgium

text: Area codes in Belgium are, excluding the leading '0', one or two digits long. Numbers are of variable length; landlines have a seven-digit subscriber number and a one-digit area code for large cities, while smaller cities have a six-digit subscriber number and a two-digit area code. All Belgian telephone numbers dialed within Belgium must use the leading '0' trunk code. Area codes are separated from the subscriber number by a slash and a space, and subscriber number digits are in the format xxx xx xx or xx xx xx (sometimes xxx xxx), depending on the length of the area code. See the table below for examples:


title: Telephone numbers in Belgium

text: Remark that Liège shares the trunk number 04 for landlines with the mobile numbers prefix 046, 047, 048, or 049. But landlines in Liège do not start with those sequences.


title: Telephone numbers in Belgium

text: From outside Belgium, a caller would dial their international call prefix (typically 00 in Europe and 011 in North America), followed by 32 (the country code for Belgium), then the area code minus the trunk code '0', and finally the local number.


title: Telephone numbers in Belgium

text: Mobile/GSM area codes always begin with 04xx and the subscriber number is six digits long. Numbers are usually provided by Mobistar (re-branded as Orange), Base, or Proximus, and more recently by Telenet as well. Each provider has a unique number assigned as the second digit in the area code: Proximus numbers begin with 047x or 0460, Base numbers with 048x, Orange numbers with 049x and Telenet numbers with 0467 and 0468. With the introduction of number portability, both for landlines and mobile numbers, area codes may no longer correspond with their original providers or local switches.


title: Telephone numbers in Belgium

text: Remark that landlines in Liège have numbers starting with 04, and so do mobile phones all over the country. But mobile numbers are 04xx xx xx xx – 10 digits in total – while Liège numbers are 04 xxx xx xx – 9 digits in total. Landlines in Liège also never starts with 04 6x, 04 7x, 04 8x or 04 9x.


title: Telephone numbers in Belgium

text: On some mobile phones, the caller ID may fail unless the leading 0 is replaced with a + and the country code, i.e. a caller's number 0474/12.34.56 might need to be manually replaced to +32/474.12.34.56 in your phone. More ranges have become available between 0440 and 0468. For the latest list refer to the BIPT reference.


title: Live Killers

text: Live Killers is a double live album by the British rock band Queen, released on 22 June 1979. The album was recorded live during the European leg of Queen's Jazz Tour, between 26 January and 1 March 1979.


title: Live Killers

text: The album was self-produced by the band and was their first to be mixed at their own studios, Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland. Guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor later revealed on the US radio show "In the Studio with Redbeard" (which spotlighted the making of 1980's "The Game") that the band had mixed "Live Killers" themselves and were unhappy with the final mix.


title: Live Killers

text: "Live Killers" was released as a double vinyl album in the UK by EMI on 22 June 1979, in Europe by Parlophone, and in the US by Elektra and Hollywood Records.


title: Live Killers

text: The 1994 issue released as part of the Digital Master Series by EMI Records did not improve upon the quality of the previous release. It was later remastered and restored in better quality by Peter Mew in 2001.


title: Live Killers

text: The album reached number 3 on the UK Albums Chart and number 16 on the "Billboard" 200 in the United States, and is certified double platinum in the US.


title: Live Killers

text: The album received negative reviews from critics on release. In a retrospective appraisal, Greg Prato of AllMusic found the initial reaction inexplicable, calling the album "an excellent document of Queen at the height of their '70s arena rock powers".


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: In computing, a pipeline, also known as a data pipeline, is a set of data processing elements connected in series, where the output of one element is the input of the next one. The elements of a pipeline are often executed in parallel or in time-sliced fashion. Some amount of buffer storage is often inserted between elements.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: Some operating systems may provide UNIX-like syntax to string several program runs in a pipeline, but implement the latter as simple serial execution, rather than true pipelining—namely, by waiting for each program to finish before starting the next one.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: Pipelining is a commonly used concept in everyday life. For example, in the assembly line of a car factory, each specific task—such as installing the engine, installing the hood, and installing the wheels—is often done by a separate work station. The stations carry out their tasks in parallel, each on a different car. Once a car has had one task performed, it moves to the next station. Variations in the time needed to complete the tasks can be accommodated by "buffering" (holding one or more cars in a space between the stations) and/or by "stalling" (temporarily halting the upstream stations), until the next station becomes available.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: Suppose that assembling one car requires three tasks that take 20, 10, and 15 minutes, respectively. Then, if all three tasks were performed by a single station, the factory would output one car every 45 minutes. By using a pipeline of three stations, the factory would output the first car in 45 minutes, and then a new one every 20 minutes.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: As this example shows, pipelining does not decrease the latency, that is, the total time for one item to go through the whole system. It does however increase the system's throughput, that is, the rate at which new items are processed after the first one.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: Since the throughput of a pipeline cannot be better than that of its slowest element, the designer should try to divide the work and resources among the stages so that they all take the same time to complete their tasks. In the car assembly example above, if the three tasks took 15 minutes each, instead of 20, 10, and 15 minutes, the latency would still be 45 minutes, but a new car would then be finished every 15 minutes, instead of 20.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: Under ideal circumstances, if all processing elements are synchronized and take the same amount of time to process, then each item can be received by each element just as it is released by the previous one, in a single clock cycle. That way, the items will flow through the pipeline at a constant speed, like waves in a water channel. In such "wave pipelines", no synchronization or buffering is needed between the stages, besides the storage needed for the data items.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: More generally, buffering between the pipeline stages is necessary when the processing times are irregular, or when items may be created or destroyed along the pipeline. For example, in a graphics pipeline that processes triangles to be rendered on the screen, an element that checks the visibility of each triangle may discard the triangle if it is invisible, or may output two or more triangular pieces of the element if they are partly hidden. Buffering is also needed to accommodate irregularities in the rates at which the application feeds items to the first stage and consumes the output of the last one.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: The buffer between two stages may be simply a hardware register with suitable synchronization and signalling logic between the two stages. When a stage A stores a data item in the register, it sends a "data available" signal to the next stage B. Once B has used that data, it responds with a "data received" signal to A. Stage A halts, waiting for this signal, before storing the next data item into the register. Stage B halts, waiting for the "data available" signal, if it is ready to process the next item but stage A has not provided it yet.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: If the processing times of an element are variable, the whole pipeline may often have to stop, waiting for that element and all the previous ones to consume the items in their input buffers. The frequency of such pipeline stalls can be reduced by providing space for more than one item in the input buffer of that stage. Such a multiple-item buffer is usually implemented as a first-in, first-out queue. The upstream stage may still have to be halted when the queue gets full, but the frequency of those events will decrease as more buffer slots are provided. Queueing theory can tell the number of buffer slots needed, depending on the variability of the processing times and on the desired performance.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: If some stage takes (or may take) much longer than the others, and cannot be sped up, the designer can provide two or more processing elements to carry out that task in parallel, with a single input buffer and a single output buffer. As each element finishes processing its current data item, it delivers it to the common output buffer, and takes the next data item from the common input buffer. This concept of "non-linear" or "dynamic" pipeline is exemplified by shops or banks that have two or more cashiers serving clients from a single waiting queue.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: In some applications, the processing of an item Y by a stage A may depend on the results or effect of processing a previous item X by some later stage B of the pipeline. In that case, stage A cannot correctly process item Y until item X has cleared stage B.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: This situation occurs very often in instruction pipelines. For example, suppose that Y is an arithmetic instruction that reads the contents of a register that was supposed to have been modified by an earlier instruction X. Let A be the stage that fetches the instruction operands, and B be the stage that writes the result to the specified register. If stage A tries to process instruction Y before instruction X reaches stage B, the register may still contain the old value, and the effect of Y would be incorrect.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: In order to handle such conflicts correctly, the pipeline must be provided with extra circuitry or logic that detects them and takes the appropriate action. Strategies for doing so include:


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: To be effectively implemented, data pipelines need a CPU scheduling strategy to dispatch work to the available CPU cores, and the usage of data structures on which the pipeline stages will operate on. For example, UNIX derivatives may pipeline commands connecting various processes' standard IO, using the pipes implemented by the operating system.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: Lower level approaches may rely on the threads provided by the operating system to schedule work on the stages: both thread pool-based implementations or on a one-thread-per-stage are viable, and exist.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: Other strategies relying on cooperative multitasking exist, that do not need multiple threads of execution and hence additional CPU cores, such as using a round-robin scheduler with a coroutine-based framework. In this context, each stage may be instantiated with its own coroutine, yielding control back to the scheduler after finishing its round task. This approach may need careful control over the process' stages to avoid them abuse their time slice.


title: Pipeline (computing)

text: A pipelined system typically requires more resources (circuit elements, processing units, computer memory, etc.) than one that executes one batch at a time, because its stages cannot share those resources, and because buffering and additional synchronization logic may be needed between the elements.