The only three given more than token screen time are Ichiro Watanabe (Taketoshi Naito), a 70-year old businessman who died in the wake of an unhappy life of drudgery, and his afterlife case workers, Takashi Mochizuki (Arata) and Shiori Satonaka (Erika Oda). There are too many characters, and little time is accorded to any of them. After Life is intellectually satisfying, but emotionally cool. This technique, while not overt, gives After Life a much different feel from the run-of-the-mill art house offering.Īn element that is missing from After Life is the emotional connection that formed the cornerstone of Maborosi. There are long shots of empty halls, unoccupied rooms, and open spaces where nothing moves. As was true of Maborosi, every scene is carefully composed, with the camera often lingering on inanimate objects. One turns a winter storm into a ballet of snowflakes and another shows the steam drifting lazily upward from two cups of freshly-poured tea. There aren't as many great visuals, although Kore-eda still presents a variety of images that stick in the mind. No one can pass on until they do.Īfter Life lacks the sumptuous visual palette of Maborosi. There's one simple requirement for becoming a counselor at the halfway house: refuse to choose a memory. Kore-eda uses this premise as a springboard for numerous interwoven tales, telling us stories both of those who are passing through the way station on their way to the sweet hereafter and those who "live" and work there.
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A movie like this demands a degree of post-credit involvement - otherwise, it has not achieved one of its primary aims. That memory is then re-created and filmed, and it becomes their constant and sole companion as they pass into the afterlife.Īt the heart of After Life lies the kind of enticing and intellectually titillating concept that will have audiences examining their own lives. During that time, they must choose the one memory from their life that they want to keep the rest will all be erased. The dead stay at this place for exactly one week. There is no heaven or hell, no god or religion. According to the director's vision, when someone dies, they go to a spiritual halfway house that looks like a country lodge. Kore-eda's solution, however, has the distinction of being unique - a quality that is rare in motion pictures of any sort, and is especially unusual in a movie set in this arena. The premise is one that has intrigued human beings since the dawn of history: what happens after death. Kore-eda's follow-up to Maborosi is After Life, a much different kettle of fish. Maborosi was not widely distributed, but it is available on video, and its nearly perfect composition caused film critic Roger Ebert to award it a slot in his first Overlooked Film Festival. Hirokazo Kore-eda stunned audiences with his vividly realized, emotionally resonant depiction of a young widow's struggle to piece together her life in the wake of her husband's inexplicable suicide. The release of 1995's Maborosi introduced the world to a major new force in Japanese film making.
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