ThiefHott Too much of everything

Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Executscan Expected more

kayjayrrr Several people arrive at a rural terminal; we soon learn they are recently deceased but not quite in the after life. They are at this way station to choose one memory, one favorite time in life in which they will live forever. This will be filmed for them, and, upon viewing, they will pass into that memory for eternity. The staff at this way station are also deceased, but have not chosen their favorite memory. One of the guests, Ichiro, cannot choose a memory. His counselor/interviewer, Takashi, pushes him to remember something, and through his interviews, discovers that Ichiro married the woman that Takashi loved, before his own death at a young age. At turns comical and bittersweet, AFTER LIFE will get you thinking about eternity and life. What memory would you choose?

Desertman84 After Life is a film by Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda that features Arata, Oda Erika and Terajima Susumu.After Life is a brilliant meditation on death and memory. The premise of the movie is simple: over the span of a week, twenty-two souls arrive at a way station (which looks like an old junior high school) between life and death, where they are asked to choose just one memory to take into the afterlife. The new arrivals include an elderly woman, a rebellious dropout, a teenage girl, and a 70-year-old war veteran. Once they have chosen a memory, it is recreated and filmed by the staff of the way station, using all the tricks and illusions of cinema: cotton balls are used to mimic clouds, a fan is used for a summer breeze.The movie is set in a building resembling a decrepit travel lodge or social services institution. Every Monday, a new group of recently deceased people check in, and the "social workers" in the lodge explain to each guest their situation. The newly-dead have until Wednesday to identify the single happiest memory. For the rest of the week, the workers at the institution work to design and replicate each person's chosen memory, thereby replicating the single happiest moment of that person's life, and it is filmed.At the end of the week, the recently deceased watch the films of their recreated happiest memories in a screening room. As soon as each person sees his or her own memory, he or she vanishes to whatever unknown state of existence lies beyond and takes only that single memory with them, to live and relive for eternity.The story revolves around two of the counselors, Takashi and Shiori . Takashi has been assigned to help an old man, Ichiro,select his memory. Takashi reviews videotape of Ichiro's life and learns that Ichiro had married Takashi's former fiancée after Takashi had been killed during World War II. Takashi has Ichiro assigned to another counselor, but is still troubled by his memories, causing both him and his quasi-romantic interest Shiori to re-examine their afterlivesThis film is not a typical Hollywood feel-good film; but its unhurried pace and lack of melodrama, like its subject, may linger in the memory long afterwards that viewers may engage in a discussion about this movie.With its meditative, humanistic tone, it is the cinematic reminiscence of limbo itself, this transitional space of contemplation and nostalgia.Finally,it is an affecting and unpredictable film that lingers on one's mind long after viewing.In short,it is one special film.

dwpollar 1st watched 2/6/2010 – 6 out of 10 (Dir:Kore-eda Hirokazu): Absorbing yet slow-moving drama about a station between death and everlasting life where people go to choose one memory from their past to forever be presented to them in the rest of their existence. The movie is kind of filmed in a realistic documentary style as we are shown the workplace, the workers and then the 22 people who have recently died and have to choose their one memory this week. The way it works is they have three days to choose and work with a counselor who helps them. The workers then recreate the scene with the person from the memory kind of directing the piece that they will forever see. Once they are shown the final cut they miraculously disappear and are sent to their final resting place. The movie is initially about the deceased and the process they go thru, but then we learn about the workers and why they are there also. They are there because they were unable or chose not to choose themselves when they died -- so they are kind of sentenced to help others choose until they figure it out. OK, so the process is complicated but the power of the movie is what it does inside you while watching it. You start thinking about what you'd choose (if anything). The slow pace almost kills the movie's effectiveness despite it's message though as you wait patiently for an ending. This is definitely a unique movie but it would be hard to watch more than once – but it would be worth the one watch.

akkoziol The premise of this movie is quite simple: If before you are allowed to pass into heaven you had to live out one memory from your life forever, what memory would it be? Sounds simple enough, but is it? The span and breadth of experiences we go through in our lives, the moments, the good, the bad, when we think about it, a lot of stuff happens to us so imagine having to review your whole life and find one time or memory of life that you had and make it the memory you take with you to heaven forever. What WOULD you choose? Not so easy after all, hm? Our characters find that they are only given about a week to go about this quite monumental task and this is where the story begins. We are introduced to our counselors at the so called way-station between earth and heaven who's job it is to help the dead along to heaven. We see the careful interplay between the young, the middle-aged, and the old play out in a very patient manner as each person is tasked with rifling through their memories with a little bit of help for those a bit ambiguous about their former lives. Some find the process quite hard while others are easily able to figure things out. As in real life, we begin to see the examination of life's principle tenet that who we are is really a summation of how we live. One thing I appreciated about this movie is that, other than the main actors, the wayfaring actors are just regular people with no acting skills and you just fall in love with their idiosyncrasies, quirks, and genuine reactions. You can very much imagine yourself in their shoes. This is a very simple movie that examines a very deep question. So simple, it's brilliant.