The Age of Commercialism

Sadly Over-hyped

Crappy film

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This film is provides an unexpected answer to the question 'what happens in after-life?'. Well, contrary to the well spread beliefs there is no Hell and no Paradise and it is not Saint Peter who expects us but a rather dull team of what look like government clerks working in the rather dull building of a Japanese reception institution. They receive the people, they discuss with them their memories, and ask them to keep one - just one - significant moment in their lives which they will take with them into eternity. All the rest will be forgotten. The rest of the week the fresh dead spend in the institution is dedicated to making an amateur film based on their single memory. They go to the projection room, the lights go off, the films are projected. When the lights are turned back on there is nobody left. We do not know what happened with them. Only the boxes with the films remain to be archived forever.It is the first film of director Hirokazu Koreeda that I see. It is an unusually sensible, smart and simply made movie. The first part is filmed like a documentary, with fixed camera, style professional interviews. The second part uses hand-held camera, looking as the amateur films would have looked like. Actors are wonderful, there are many different characters, but each one is an individual, and that feeling of 'all look the same' that an European viewer has many times with Asian films is not present here at all. 'Wandâfuru raifu' is a film that makes the viewer think about their own lives and their meaning. Few films succeed this so well.

The premise of this movie is quite simple: If before you are allowed to pass into heaven you had to live out one memory from your life forever, what memory would it be? Sounds simple enough, but is it? The span and breadth of experiences we go through in our lives, the moments, the good, the bad, when we think about it, a lot of stuff happens to us so imagine having to review your whole life and find one time or memory of life that you had and make it the memory you take with you to heaven forever. What WOULD you choose? Not so easy after all, hm? Our characters find that they are only given about a week to go about this quite monumental task and this is where the story begins. We are introduced to our counselors at the so called way-station between earth and heaven who's job it is to help the dead along to heaven. We see the careful interplay between the young, the middle-aged, and the old play out in a very patient manner as each person is tasked with rifling through their memories with a little bit of help for those a bit ambiguous about their former lives. Some find the process quite hard while others are easily able to figure things out. As in real life, we begin to see the examination of life's principle tenet that who we are is really a summation of how we live. One thing I appreciated about this movie is that, other than the main actors, the wayfaring actors are just regular people with no acting skills and you just fall in love with their idiosyncrasies, quirks, and genuine reactions. You can very much imagine yourself in their shoes. This is a very simple movie that examines a very deep question. So simple, it's brilliant.

What happens when you die? Are you transported to a state of eternal happiness or do you spend the rest of eternity in damnation? The Abrahamic religious view of the afterlife is very black and white. It leaves little room for the imagination. However, non-Western cultures have different concepts of the afterlife. Through watching various anime and reading graphic novels, I've come to the conclusion that the Japanese, at least partially, may view the afterlife as determined by the individual. In After Life, (the English title) Hirokazu Kore-eda elaborates on this concept. In the film, people attend a camp to determine which of their many memories they wish to keep before departing to the afterlife. They crew at the camp reacts this memory into a mini-film and the recently deceased live with this memory for the rest of eternity.After Life employs non-actors for the majority of the screen time. These people have no formal training, which makes their lines appear all the more genuine. When they speak, their words have an honesty about them which cannot be staged. Something remarkable about the film is that it doesn't distinguish its characters by developing them, but with the unique nature of the memories they have. Furthermore, their memories are realistic and touching. Some people wish to cherish the memory of a lover; while others (especially those who were young when they died) choose a memory of childhood. A prominent theme is the comforting effect that memory has for individuals.The staff at the unnamed camp is the most mysterious of all. We are not told why they are there, but once we think more of the film's premise. The staff is composed of those who could not choose a memory and remain there to guide others to afterlife. Are they condemned live in a purgatory-state of anxiety or are have they chosen to remain there? The film offers a slight answer to this query, but it isn't necessary. The means by which it does this is the interaction of a staff member with an arrival. We learn that some of the staff wishes to take responsibility for their actions by not forgetting them.Kore-eda treats the question he proposes with much earnestly. He doesn't present anything to distract this message. There is no antagonist other than the people themselves. This does much for the film's credibility. There is no problem with the progression of the plot, nor is there a plot hole. Some criticize the film because the dead attendees sleep, eat, and why must the memory be recreated. If someone you know reads a review and asks you this, suggest that they shouldn't the film. Such petty criticism is unjustified. The film doesn't attempt to convince us of its reality. Kore-eda wants to show us his idea, and he adds these scenes to help us identify with the workers. This is why the leader reminds the others that they shouldn't become attached to the patrons.How can a film with no protagonist, no character development, and no special effects be so warmly received? After Life is able to do this because it takes a different approach to entertaining its audience. It presents an actual topic (death) and elaborates on its idea of what happens thereafter. This approach mimics the technique used by several documentaries. The end result is the viewer's satisfaction in having watched director Kore-eda's proposal of the afterlife. One may fastidiously criticize the non-essential scenes of the film, but this criticism ignores the existential question the film proposes. While few will see this film, those who do will recall the experience vividly. The film distinguishes itself by analyzing a concept with no superlatives.

What happens after one dies? Does one's soul ascend to heaven, descend to hell, or is it reincarnated into yet another earthly form? Does an individual simply cease to exist after he or she dies? In Kore-eda's second feature length film Afterlife one goes to a way station where one selects his or her favorite memory to be filmed and then one takes that memory and that memory alone to one's final destination.In order to help individuals decide which memory to keep counselors help individuals comb through their lives to find important memories. Many of the individuals, of course, select times from their childhoods as their best memories. One man selects a summer day in which he rode a tram and enjoyed the scenery and the cool breeze that blew through the window. A radiant older woman chooses a time in which she was dressed in a red, Western dress and danced for her older brother and dined on chicken rice afterwards. One bitter man chooses a time in his life when he had a small fort and was able to hide away from the world.On its surface Afterlife might seem a bit hokey and one wonders why spirits have to create videos of their memories, they also eat and drink, to take to the next world. However, isn't it true that are life experiences are nothing but memories and besides the current moment we live everything else is a memory? Kore-eda, whose other feature length films Maboroshi and Distance focus on death and memory and memory as well, delves into mankind's worry of being forgotten. One character in the film, an older man who considers every aspect of his life to be so-so, is reluctant to select a memory because he does not believe that he had a life affirming moment that will be remembered by others, but, as one of the counselors states very few people do.Slow moving, darkly filmed, and melancholy Afterlife is a deep film that takes an interesting stance to life and death and makes one reflect on one's own life and those small moments that makes each of us who we are.