Note: The following review was originally written in August 1999 for my now-defunct AOL site.
What if, after you died, you were required to select only one memory from out of all of the experiences from your life? If you were to inhabit this memory forever, with all of your other memories being wiped away, which memory would you choose? How could one even formulate a set of criteria for selecting a memory? Would your selection be based on the time when you were happiest, or felt the most peaceful, or were with the one person you loved the most? Would your memory be something extraordinary that happened to you, or something more routine that you felt represented you best? Would it be your job, or your family, or your friends, or just you, alone? Where would you begin?
Such questions are at the heart of Hirokazu Kore-Eda's masterful film AFTER LIFE. This film, set in a way station between life and the "afterlife", delves not only into the important memories of people's lives, but also why they are important to them, because not every memory would be of the same importance to each person. It also talks about the people who work at this way station who, for their own reasons, have not yet been able to progress to the afterlife.
As with any business, the process begins on Monday, when the workers assemble and prepare for the new "arrivals" - the newly dead. One by one, the deceased walk into the door to the building, sit down in the lobby, and wait to be interviewed. They are each taken into a room and told about what will happen to them over the course of the next week. They are to select a memory by Wednesday, and then the workers will attempt to re-create each memory on film, in order to aid the dead in remembering this experience. Finally, at the end of the week, they will view their film and then progress into the afterlife.
This week, there are 22 arrivals, each with their own experiences. While many of the deceased are elderly, there are some younger people, including a girl who looks to be around 13. Likewise, each person has their own idea of what their most important memory is. One woman remembers when she danced as a girl, and her brother took her to a cafe and she would dance for everyone there. An elderly man rambles incessantly about sex. A man in his fifties describes what it was like to fly an airplane. Still another talks about riding the tram to school as a boy.
Some people have more trouble figuring out their most important memories. An elderly woman who seems to have mental problems sets some leaves and branches on the tabletop. A young man of 21 (my age when I first saw the film- the thought of dying at such a young age is disquieting) refuses to choose a memory, saying that by not choosing that he is taking responsibility for his life. And an older man can't think of a memory, because he can't recall a moment in his life when he was truly happy. Eventually, the workers find some videotapes of events from the man's life, to assist him in finding a memory.
Finally, they begin to make the films. A small film crew works at the way station, and they use their limited resources to re-create the memories as best they can. The man who flew a plane describes the way the clouds were puffy and also wispy when he flew through them, and the crew uses cotton to approximate this effect. A little girl is brought in to re-create the memory of the woman who danced, and she remarks that "there was a time when I looked like that." Even though cotton balls and little girls make a poor substitute for re-experiencing something, what is really important about these scenes is not that they replace the people's memories, but instead suggest how it originally was for the person.
This film, whose premise asks quite a few questions in and of itself, is also good at suggesting additional layers of questions. First, is it really such a blessing to be able to live only one experience over and over again? How far removed is the after life from the real world? Most importantly, after you have selected a memory, wouldn't you like to thank those people who made that memory possible? This is really what the film is about- that the most important thing isn't who improved your life, but whose lives you made happier and better.
Hirokazu Kore-Eda, with his first two fiction films (MABOROSI and AFTER LIFE, followed since by DISTANCE and NOBODY KNOWS), has emerged as one of the most remarkable talents in world cinema today, and it's a shame that more people haven't seen his work. Films such as those he has made are a rarity these days, since they cause you to pause and reflect on the world around you, and also to ponder questions that you might not have considered, or that you have avoided thinking about. Walking home after viewing AFTER LIFE for the first time, I thought about the film I had just seen, and I looked up into the sky as night was falling. Although it was getting dark, I could still see clouds. And yes, they did look like cotton.
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