After Life (1998)

The dead arrive at a way station where counselors guide them to choose one memory to live with for eternity. The place is an overgrown administration building. After the counselors help the arrivals pick their memories, the film crew recreates the memory and the arrivals watch the tape. After watching the tape, they disappear into the next stage. The counselors await for the new week and the next arrivals.

I love this idea. It's got great potential. However it feels a little like watching some kind of government bureaucracy. No matter how touching it gets. This has a DMV type of pacing. There is one fun section where they are recreating the memories. It could funnier but I like that section. I love this movie idea but two hours is a stretch.

Fmovies: The movie is told in such a way that the people coming in reveals themselves in such a way that they all realize that there is a part of themselves in which it is truly good, even if it is deeply buried. The way it is filmed, as if it is a documentary, provides the cunning realism that you would not ordinarily achieve in regular film. Even at the end, we discover the true reason one of the counselor stayed around instead of moving on. Truly a touching and thought provoking film. It will make you try to think for yourself which memory you would cherish forever, even if it is single one.

I saw this movie in the theatre. It is always a pleasure to be at a viewing where there is spontaneous applause at the end. This is one of those movies. It speaks to your very soul. I understand that quite a few of the cast were not professional actors, but spoke from their own lifetime experiences. There is a very simple premise: you get to choose the most favourite moment of your life after you are dead and then help to recreate it, staging, cast of characters, scene - and the total non-professional manufacturing of this moment I found very touching - so that it can be savoured for all eternity. The perfect heaven. Of course some recently dead people can't think of anything, some remember very simple things, some are given assistance, like the record of their entire life in video form to review and extract a memory, if they can. The cast and direction is brilliant. I shudder to think of what modern Hollywood would do with this ("What dreams may come" being a case in point). It was all extremely simple and believable and has certainly had me talking about it for quite a while since I have seen it. 8 out of 10.

After Life fmovies. Afterlife is without a doubt one of the greatest Japanese films I've ever seen. Visually it is truly stunning. Kore Eda is known for his own obsession with lighting and his skill for casting shadows and beams of white light are second to none. Combined with an innovative, creative and enjoyable story that takes on a slightly supernatural docu-drama and at the same time is set in a dull, down and out halfway house between Earth(life) and heaven(afterlife). Fascinating scenes take place as the deceased have one week to decide on a single memory from their lifetime that they can keep for all eternity. He also includes elements of documentary with talking head scenes of the deceased talking about their memories. Kore Eda throws around some extremely interesting ideas and themes on life and human emotions for our memories and he genuinely makes you think about what he's said once you've finished watching.

This is a film that not everyone would enjoy due to its slow moving pace, mood orientated lighting and partly improvised script, but it is a creative masterpiece that is definitely worthy of high praise and attention.

One of the few masterpieces of the year, and a rare sighting of a new talent who will surely become one of the greats. Fantasy is once again shown to be the most flexible of all forms - it can sustain profound metaphysical questions as well as examinations into Japanese history, culture and society. But, most importantly, it is the true form to examine people - their hopes and desires, fears and failures. Despite the buff hue and downbeat tone, AFTER LIFE is a comedy, it celebrates life even as it ends, even as it disappoints. It also makes the strongest case for - and against - filmmaking in recent memory.

I think this film is as much about film-making as it is about "Heaven". I think the previous comment about creating lasting illusion on limited budgets pointed to the heart of this film. It is about a love of cinema much like "Cinema Paradiso".

A small crew of people have to create memories that last forever with shaky props and jury-rigged effects but it doesn't matter. The viewer is an active participant and memory can be revived with the barest of props and sets. Isn't that the ESSENCE of film, memory and active participation by the audience is why a film delights. The more you can relate to a film and understand it in terms of your own life, the more satisfying the whole experience is.