AFTER LIFE

AFTER LIFE (“Wandafuru raifu” 1998, Japan, Hirokazu Kore-eda)
What is the one memory you would take with you?

In a worn, empty and utterly ordinary old building someplace between earth and eternity, a dutiful group of caseworkers guides twenty-two people in their transition from life to what lies ahead. Each client has three days to choose one, and only one, event from their lives to accompany them into the after life. Then the staff has three more days to stage and film each of the episodes on a simple soundstage. On Saturday the short films are shown, each client takes their memory and departs for whatever lies beyond the walls of this metaphysical way station. A meditation on the sacredness of the everyday, this exquisite film quietly grounds its otherworldly premise in closely observed quotidian details – including the use of actual documentary interviews – regardless of whether it is considering the making of tea, the making of memories, the making of art or the making of eternal decisions. The literal translation of the Japanese title is “Wonderful Life.”

DEFENDING YOUR LIFE, OPEN YOUR EYES, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME, THE PASSING OF THE THIRD FLOOR BACK


Available at Videomatica