Matthew B
As visions of the afterlife go, Hirokazu Koreeda's film is certainly one of the most low-key. There are no dazzling special effects, and his presentation of the next world is positively prosaic.
The dead people presumably step into the bright dazzling light ahead of them, but we only see them as they emerge. The lights may even be ordinary bright electrical appliances intended to capture the attention of the recently deceased in order to tell them where to go.
When they step into the light, the newly-dead people find themselves in a building that looks like an old school reconstituted to create living quarters. They are asked to wait in the lobby. The facilities in their new temporary home are basic. The rooms are shabby, but comfortable enough. Lighting is poor, and use of a hairdryer can overload the electrical circuits. Whoever is maintaining this part of the afterlife is not working on a generous budget.
The new arrivals are greeted by administrative staff. They are not the chilly bureaucrats that we meet in Michael Powell's fantasy, A Matter of Life and Death. In fact they are friendly and helpful staff who wish to make the transition as agreeable as possible.
What is the purpose of this afterlife facility? The recently deceased spend a week in this building. During this time they are asked to choose a memory from their life. This needs to be a special memory that gave them happiness. The staff then recreate this moment on film, and get the newly dead people to watch it. They will then disappear and spend the rest of eternity living in this moment.
This is not an afterlife based on a system of rewards and punishments. There is no heaven and hell. Everyone receives the same treatment. If A Matter of Life and Death shows a heaven based on conformity, Koreeda's film shows an afterlife that is formed around an individual and personal vision. The dead do not progress to a future state but regress to a single moment in their past.
To create a documentary-style verisimilitude, Koreeda employs hand-held cameras, and includes interviews with actual people, in which they are asked to choose a memory. These are mingled in with footage of actors, some of them improvising, and some of them sticking to a script. Koreeda interviewed 500 people in preparation for the film.
What would it be like to have to choose one memory? Koreeda approaches the issue from all angles. What memories would people choose? Would they necessarily be happy or interesting? To us they might seem mundane, and yet they could be the most precious moment in that particular person's entire life.
Think of the challenges facing the staff here as they are asked to recreate a memory chosen by a recently-deceased person. If the dead person wishes to boast of a sexual encounter, would you be obligated to film that?
The dead people are much older than they were at the time of the memory. Sometimes they recollect a childhood experience, or even something that happened when they were a baby. How do you convincingly produce this, knowing that the memory has to seem right to the person who experienced that moment?
What if the dead people find themselves stuck? Would you wish to relive your life? Or choose one memory, and lose all others? What If your whole life was mundane, with no special moments? Or you had an unhappy life, and reliving one moment would be hell? What if the dead person wishes to be obtuse and choose a dream, or a vision of the future?
These are some of the problems that the helpers face when they work with the dead people. Indeed they are understanding of the dilemmas faced by their clients, because the staff in this institution comprises people who died but could not or would not choose a memory.
Indeed we could see the film as a metaphor for the art of cinema, a method that allows a director to preserve for posterity something that was important in his own life. In making the film Koreeda was influenced by the experience of seeing his grandfather suffering from a neuro-degenerative disease.
It is a reminder of the importance of memory. The moments that we recall as special are those that define who we consider ourselves to be. The sharper our memory of the past events, the happier we may feel. When a memory is lost, some of the goodness in our lives passes with it.
However the art of cinema allows those memories to be maintained, regardless of what happens to the person making the film. The methods used by the afterlife staff are those of a film crew. They work with a script. They use cameras. They employ a director to arrange the scenarios.
It is such tricks that film-makers use to create a memory of some part of their lives that seems real to them, and to us as we watch the film, even though we know the artifice that went into making it. For us, the fortunate viewers, the memory of watching After Life can be recreated again and again. That is comforting for me.
I wrote a longer appreciation of After Life on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2022/06/11/after-life-1998/
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
07/31/23
Full Review
Alvise F
The calmness with which Kore-eda faces the theme of death, never letting himself go to discounted sentimentality, confirms his ability and sensitivity as an emerging author.
In a kind of limbo, each soul must choose a memory, only one. The memory will be reinterpreted and staged by the examiners, finally it will be recorded on videotape and delivered to the examinee who can keep it for eternity. The whole is, however, a fictitious representation of the lived memory, thus underlining the metacinematic character of the narration.
The cyclicality with which new souls arrive at the office every week highlights the fatalism, but never with a negative meaning. The souls are all placed equally to the scrutiny of the examiners, democratically: all have to accomplish the same transition and everyone is granted the same privilege, regardless of who they have been and what they have done during their lives.
At times the film might seem long-winded, especially for the stillness with which Kore-eda decides to face the interviews, but everything is part of a slow contemplation of the delicacy and awareness of the transience of life (and death).
The question remains, what is the one memory would you choose?
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
05/22/22
Full Review
Audience Member
Very moving. Koreeda hijacks your brain and forces self reflection. What memory would you choose?
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/14/23
Full Review
nefasto r
If in my after life I'd have a week to choose the best Hirokazu Koreeda movie I'd be in trouble. I would probably get stuck in that place for a very long time. That being said, would I choose this one? "Wandafuru Raifu"? I watched all of them and I can safely say no, this film is not my first pick, but even so is a very good tale and another confirmation that Koreeda is among my top five favorites directors! Domo arigato.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
After people die, they come to a place where people greet them and ask the deceased to find a memory. They're favorite memory to keep for ever. This process takes a few days, but when the most important memory is cleared out, it's recreated and shot by camera.
This idea is terrific! I dig it. The dead people we get to know and the workers at the place are pretty interesting and so are the stories, but still this film feels a bit dragged for me. Talkative Japanese films are often hard to cope with, and throw in a vivid plot that demands attention and you are up for a hard film to digest.
It looks good, it got a few moments, but it's also a bit repitative and grey. Few scenes lifts me, few scenes feel directly interesting.
I'm a huge fan of Koreeda and a huge fan of fantasy-plots like this, vivid and smart. It never feels dreamy enough, kind of. The surroundings are a bit ordinary and gray and rather poor production values kills it a bit for me. It feels dated.
Known to be one of his best works, but for me it's probably his poorest. I gave it a solid score for it's idea and shooting, but it lacks charisma and power. It does makes you appreciate life and think though. What is my best memory?
6 out of 10 cotton skies.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
10/10
It all comes together in the most surprising and unexpected way due to Koreeda's hold on his story.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/14/23
Full Review
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