A foreign film review by Chris White
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AFTER LIFE
Written & Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda
Nearly a decade after Albert Brooks suggested that each of us must prove his mettle in an after-life court of law (DEFENDING YOUR LIFE, 1991), Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda imagines us starring, post-mortem, in a supernatural film of our life’s happiest moment.
AFTER LIFE is a richly imagined, completely original, and deeply moving film for an age when most understand the story of their lives as cinema.
The first part of the film is about each character remembering, deciding, and then choosing a memory that will follow them into eternity.
This is an agonizing choice for some…very easy for others. Some choose simple moments, while others pick more dramatic, obvious moments. Yet in each character’s choice, we see ourselves, our own lives…our own life-defining stories.
The second part of the film plays like a behind-the-scenes, making-of documentary about each character stepping in to the literal role of their life.
Koreeda smartly supports his documentary-styled narrative with a parallel story…that of a quasi-romantic relationship that develops between two after-life facilitators/social workers. And it is in this sub-plot, that he gives voice to the concerns of the still-living.
This is fascinating filmmaking from one of the world’s brightest and most honest filmmakers.
1998 \\ Color \\ 118 min.
Artistic License
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Japan
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