Los Angeles - On a night when most Oscar winners followed expectations, the crowning of Departures as the best foreign film marked the biggest surprise of the Academy Awards.

The drama directed by Yojiro Takita stars Masahiro Motoki as a devoted cellist in an orchestra. But as soon as he spends most of his savings on a new cello, the ensemble is disbanded. Finding himself without a job, he moves back to his hometown with his wife to look for work and start over.

He answers a classified ad entitled "Departures" thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency, but he discovers it's for a funeral professional who prepares bodies for burial and entry into the next life. His wife and friends despise his new position, but he begins to perfect the ritual and finds his place and his life's meaning in managing the transition between life and death.

The movie has had a very limited release in the United States, and most Oscar observers expected the acclaimed Israeli movie Waltz With Bashir to take the prize.

Takita himself appeared unprepared for the victory when he took the Oscar podium Sunday night in Los Angeles.

"I am here because of film," he said before thanking his collaborators on the movie.

Later, he admitted that he too had expected the Israeli film to win.

"I didn't believe it. It was unbelievable," he said, according to the trade paper Variety. "It's always been the classical samurai-type movies that have won Oscars, and this is the first Oscar winner to portray modern Japan."

On Friday, the film had an even more successful night, winning 10 prizes at the Japanese Academy Awards. The movie has made more than 34 million dollars at the Japanese box office. (dpa)