Before We Vanish

Audience Reviews

View More

babarizam D @RT59932316 06/09/2024 Its a compelling movie. Not a typical sci fi movie but deeply thoughtful and raise many questions See more Diana S @DianaWho 04/28/2024 It's far too long and thinks itself a little too clever. It's an interesting sci-fi angle, and the ending was powerful enough. If the film has been edited more tightly and we'd gotten there more quickly, it would have resonated more strongly for me. See more Taylor L @RT77267842 01/16/2023 Before We Vanish is a strange genre clash that isn't to all tastes. The overarcing plot is simple enough - three aliens take over human bodies as scouts for an imminent invasion - but from there the film gets tricky. The scouts learn about humanity by stealing concepts from individual people (as in, to learn about property rights, they'll yoink the whole concept of property rights out of your mind). The film also diverges into two distinct pathways; one is an alien that has taken over an unfaithful man and who explores the idea of a relationship with his wife with unexpected sincerity, the other is a more conventional invasion narrative where the other two aliens (more violent and sociopathic) recruit a beat reporter to undergo an oddly laid-back quest to get a signal out to the invading army, all while facing down Japan's version of the Men in Black. You with me so far? Well, you've got plenty of time to figure things out, because writer-director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation) has no qualms about taking his time to get to a destination. He's also very free-form with tone, treating violence as a kind of comic relief at points but also trending towards more profound, apocalyptic sci-fi and dealing heavily with the concept of human identity (as seen through the lens of an extraterrestrial intelligence). It's a bit interesting and offbeat, particularly the thought of long-simmering marital tensions being solved by alien possession, but the ending is a bit of a sticking point for me, with aliens calling off the invasion because they apparently learned about love; kind of hokey, the sort of thing you'd expect in an under-10 Disney sci-fi rather than a genre-bender like this. Very lackluster effects aren't a big selling point either. Anyway it's got unique pieces and I can see genre fans and cult film buffs fawning over this one. (3/5) See more 04/11/2021 This is a movie that improves with repeated viewings. Also, if you are watching it strictly for an exciting alien invasion story, I think you will be disappointed. This movie is basically a quirky fable about what it means to be human, as seen through the eyes of aliens. It is also a love story. See more Cory H @RT22079611 11/08/2019 So boring, really annoying characters, terrible ending. See more 03/05/2019 The cinematography seems simple but simplicity is impressive. A dish that is quite simple, fun, but rather difficult to understand. Before We Vanish is a spectacle that is so intriguing, full of drama, but a plot that tends to be in slow. In some scenes, there is an obvious plot hole and there is so much waste of times. For the rest, this is a horror, thriller, and drama movie. A film about understanding the nature of human complexity and what's actually missing. See more Read all reviews

Before We Vanish

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING