Why the film is worth your time
Imaginative, compassionate, and perceptive, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life creates a crucible of sorts to distill a person’s life down to its essence — specifically as the person identifies, in hindsight, the most significant event in their life. The film puts 20 or more characters in its crucible, exploring a kaleidoscopic landscape of lives and memories. After Life is very much worth the time, as much for the goodness of getting to know Kore-eda’s imagined — and real — characters as for the depth and insight of his exploration into the human condition.
Introduction to the film
At the waystation where people go just after they die, the workers are all very dedicated and attentive. Visitors stay there for a week before they move on, and the workers help with a specific task assigned to each visitor: Select one memory from any part of their life, which the workers will reenact and film. It’s the one and only thing a visitor takes with them as they go, and the memory selection process can be as emotional for the workers as it is for the visitors.
- Released: 1998
- Running time: 118 min.
Reflections before you see the film
The first and major question After Life asks is clear from the introduction above: What would be the one memory that you would choose? But that’s merely the start of it. In Kore-eda’s exploration, we travel through pain and simple joys, through arrogance and beauty, through pursuit of fun and episodes of debasement, through both tender and neglected relationships — asking what significance we find in life and why. What do we see when we open our eyes? When we close them? What do we love? 
The visitors gather to watch the memories that the workers have recreated.What and whom do we use? In each day, what do we seek, thinking our lives will be the better for it? And how does our manner of life form how we would choose that one memory?
The unique and varied situations of each visitor, the dialog between workers and between workers and visitors, the issues the visitors face, and the unfolding of the week are all intimately crafted. This is a strong accomplishment: Given the film’s concept, it might well have been executed in a didactic, preachy way. Instead, each visitor is treated with reality, dignity, and respect. In Kore-eda’s pacing of the film, we have time to get to know most of them well. Some might think the pacing slow, but what can be taken as slow is, viewed the other way round, easy and measured, unhurried and contemplative, and masterful in its reflectiveness. Don’t get me wrong: plenty happens in the film, yet there’s also plenty of time to watch, to feel, and to process — the pacing is luscious, actually. The performances are strong, and the setting — a non-descript building or two on grounds that are nice but not fancy — sets a tone and context that dissociates the film from any preconceived notions its waystation-after-death concept might bring to mind.
Content awareness
In After Life, one or two of the visitors talk much about sex, but there is little or no other content to note. Some viewers with strong religious convictions might be troubled by the basic premise of the film’s location and some of the dialogue around it.
The credits
- Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
- Screenplay: Hirokazu Kore-eda
- Leads: Arata Iura, Erika Oda, Susumu Terajima, Takashi Naitô
- Cinematography: Masayoshi Sukita, Yutaka Yamasaki
- Music: Yasuhiro Kasamatsu
Where to find the film
NOTE: Reviews and content on other sites may have spoilers — without warning you.
- Buy After Life DVD at: Alibris.com || Amazon.com
- Info on IMDb
- Reviews on Rottentomatoes (87%)
- Reviews on Metacritic (91 of 100)
- Review by LA Times (Kenneth Turan)
