After Life
Composite Score: 83.7
Starring: Arata Iura, Erika Oda, Susumu Terajima, Takashi Naitô, Kei Tani, Taketoshi Naitô, Yûsuke Iseya, Sayaka Yoshino, and Hisako Hara
Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu
Writer: Kore-eda Hirokazu
Genres: Drama, Fantasy
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Box Office: $801,985 worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
After Life is Kore-eda Hirokazu’s film about what happens to us after we die, taking place over the course of a week in a fictional facility for the recently deceased. It follows the caseworkers assigned to help the newly dead select the one memory from each of their lives that they’d like to take with them into eternity, turn it into a film, and screen it for them as they enter into the next phase of death. The film provides a meaningful look at human nature and memory and what is really important at the end of the day. Its touching narrative about helping people find themselves and move on within a mildly fantastical setting makes it an easily memorable film.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
If you’re looking for a film about what exactly the afterlife is all about, despite its name, this is not the film for you. After Life doesn’t really explore the actual afterlife nor does it claim to be making some kind of definitive stance on eternity or life after death or any of that. It uses its fictional space within an afterlife to tell a much more interesting and engaging story about what is important in life and how we perceive the people and events that we are experiencing. It’s not so much a reminder to follow any particular set of rules or regulations but instead to appreciate whatever it is that you do while you are doing it. Though its title might be a bit misleading, if you know what you’re getting into, I doubt you’ll be disappointed.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Kore-eda is known for his interesting takes on different types of film, and I think this might be one of his best. Because of how the film is shot and how the narrative unfolds, portions of the film feel almost like a docudrama (or comedy) in the vein of a reality television show. At other points it feels like an existential romance and, still, at others like a metanarrative about filmmaking in general. He brilliantly blends all of these pieces into a cohesive film that ends up not being cerebral and mindbending – how you might expect from those descriptions – but instead emotional and cathartic in a truly touching way by the film’s end.
Kore-eda’s unique take on the afterlife in After Life allows the audience to bask in an appreciation of memory before coming to the emotional conclusion about how easily we undervalue ourselves, our impact on the people around us, and the events that we experience until it is too late, making the film undeniably one of the greatest of all time. Its premise might throw some viewers off who are looking for something more in the vein of The Good Place, but its sheer weight and relatability should make it easy to overcome those hangups. It is currently available to stream on the Criterion Channel if you’re looking for a place to watch it in the near future.
