ironhorse_iv
Set in a dreary Japanese brick school-building, the film tells the story of the recently deceased, having one week to choose, one of their most cherished memories in order to replay that life experience for the rest of their eternity with the help of civil servants who will recreate the memory on film. Without spoiling this existential insight film, too much, I just had to say, I didn't felt the out-of-body experience as I should had. Don't get me wrong, 'Afterlife' AKA 'Wonderful Life' does have a great movie concept, but I though the execution from director Hirokazu Koreeda, and his crew just didn't click. I think, one of the problems with this film, is the fact that Korreda doesn't do enough to make the characters seem like they're dead. Don't get me wrong, the acting is fine, but it's weird to see, these souls, being able to drink tea and eat food, sleep, and leave the compound for location scouting. It's not very convincing that they are indeed passed on. Honestly, if I was able to do all that, as a civil servant, I wouldn't choose a memory, too!! Also, the school building location wasn't a good choice. For a place that supposed to represented 'limbo', it had too much life, there. The background sounds of birds chirping, dogs barking and trains moving, was very distracting. For me, a very white clean underground hospital or lab, with little to no background sound, would be a better choice. It would be, more appealing to the story tones. Also, it really doesn't really make sense that the counselors have to recreate the memory in seven days, if they already have the video footage of all the demise in VCR tapes. Why not, play the video with the memory, in a loop!? I get the God built the world in seven days, reference, but honestly, if you put logic in this illogical movie, it really does take you out of the movie, when they were able to build sets, make costumes, and film in only a few days (3 days at the most). Also, are we supposed to believe that the crew and cast that the counselors, brought in to help; are also dead, because it really didn't seem, so. How are they able to return, but not the dead family of the recently demises for this recreation!? Plus, there is way, too many characters to follow. Even with the film telling a few backstories on who they were, I still had trouble, figuring out, which character's story is which person. Also, it really sucks, the movie never shows the final film footage for those characters. It was less, 'flash before their eyes' and more 'flash in a pan'. Nevertheless, I did like the semi-fake documentary interview style filmmaking that Korreda does, even if the film cuts were very noticeable. Much of the entertaining parts in this movie is shown, through interviews conducted with the recently deceased regarding their lives. Some of these interviews were scripted, but many were done impromptu, with real people, not actors reminiscing about their own lives. It really does add an extra layer of truth behind the images. Still, it wasn't as emotional as it should had. Maybe, it's the Nihonjinron pride that Japanese culture has, not to show, weakness, but I really thought, some of them, were a little laidback, when talking about, some really heavy stuff. I really wanted to see, some more yelling, crying, and fight in them. Instead, it seems like, everybody there, was alright with the fact that they're dead, and not living. Still, those parts of the film, weren't that boring. I just wish, they were a little more philosophic in their talk, rather than spilling out mostly forgettable dialogue. While, they talk a little about Japanese's moral dilemma on traditions about life, the film really miss the boat on talking about the Bushido code that the old guard establishment believes in, and YOLO (You only live once) lifestyle of the shrinking percentage of young people. It really could had been an eye-opener. Still, I like the twist, toward the end of the film, even if it's a bit unclear, what's happening. In the end, I have to say, this movie really needed much better production values. The low budget really kill the mood for this film. It's sad, because I like the reexamining of our lives, through the use of our afterlife, idea. Sadly, it didn't really leave an impact on me, as it should had. I'd love to see this concept remade with a high budget, with a more visionary director, one day. Overall: I can still highly recommended, seeing this movie. Just note, it's not as good as the cult-followers think, it is.
GyatsoLa
A run down school, a seemingly random group of people conducting awkward interviews with new arrivals seems an odd way to look at the afterlife, but Kore-eda has created something really special with this film. He somehow makes an enormously unlikely scenario for purgatory - where the dead are asked to select the memory they wish to hold onto forever, and (most unlikely!), this is recreated by a ramshackle low budget film crew, and turns it into something profound and beautiful. The film is a truly remarkable ensemble effort - there are no real stars in this film (despite a beautiful minor part from that truly great actress, Kyoko Kagawa), even the most minor characters (including an adorable old lady in the throes of a mercifully pleasant dementia) are given their own time and space and are depicted wonderfully. Dull looking salarimen who struggle to find memories that are worth keeping are shown to have lives of real depth and quality. A schoolgirl is dissuaded from a clichéd remembrance of a nice day in Disneyland, and instead remembers a beautiful moment with her mother. A mouthy, sex obsessed older man is shown to be boastful simply as a way of hiding the real love he has for his daughter. The film is obviously open to all sorts of interpretations, but for what its worth it seems to me to be about the importance of those small moments of joy, of grace, that make life worth living. Interestingly, he implies that those moments don't necessarily have to have really happened - it is the memory that is important, not the reality. Just one moment of ecstasy is maybe just enough for a life worth living.The film sounds quirky and slow, and it is paced at the speed of life - slow, but all too fast at the end. But it is never less than engrossing and in the end, beautiful and moving. Kore- edas films are not disposable entertainment, they are real art of the type that will stay with you forever if you allow them to wash over you. Try it, you won't regret it.
Meganeguard
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.
