Wandafuru raifu

Every Monday morning, a team of advisors welcome in a facility a group of people that has just died with the mission of helping each one of them to select their best memory that will last for the eternity in the first three days. On Thursday, filmmakers begin to recreate the selected memory, and in the end of the week they screen it in a movie theater and he or she moves to Heaven.

I bought "Wandâfuru Raifu", or "After Life" on DVD, since I was very intrigued with the summary on its cover. I saw this low budget movie spoken in Japanese with English subtitles and I found the story very original and provocative. The premise of rebuilding eternity along a week, like God created Earth, and Heaven be a projection of a movie of the best memory one could have, is fantastic. In spite of having unexplained points, like for example the need itself of lasting with only one single memory, and inconsistencies, like why the need of shooting the memory, if the staff can bring videotapes of the entire life, what matters is the originality of this unique movie. One point that has always impressed me in cinema is the fact the actors and actresses last forever in the eyes of the audiences along generations. In this movie, each one of us has the chance to be an actor or actress, and write our own screenplay. Further, I personally recalled many good moments of my life just because of the storyline of this movie, and I found how difficult it could be to select only one good moment of my life to last forever. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Depois da Vida" ("After Life")

Afterlife is without a doubt one of the greatest Japanese films I've ever seen. Visually it is truly stunning. Kore Eda is known for his own obsession with lighting and his skill for casting shadows and beams of white light are second to none. Combined with an innovative, creative and enjoyable story that takes on a slightly supernatural docu-drama and at the same time is set in a dull, down and out halfway house between Earth(life) and heaven(afterlife). Fascinating scenes take place as the deceased have one week to decide on a single memory from their lifetime that they can keep for all eternity. He also includes elements of documentary with talking head scenes of the deceased talking about their memories. Kore Eda throws around some extremely interesting ideas and themes on life and human emotions for our memories and he genuinely makes you think about what he's said once you've finished watching.

This is a film that not everyone would enjoy due to its slow moving pace, mood orientated lighting and partly improvised script, but it is a creative masterpiece that is definitely worthy of high praise and attention.

I saw this movie in the theatre. It is always a pleasure to be at a viewing where there is spontaneous applause at the end. This is one of those movies. It speaks to your very soul. I understand that quite a few of the cast were not professional actors, but spoke from their own lifetime experiences. There is a very simple premise: you get to choose the most favourite moment of your life after you are dead and then help to recreate it, staging, cast of characters, scene - and the total non-professional manufacturing of this moment I found very touching - so that it can be savoured for all eternity. The perfect heaven. Of course some recently dead people can't think of anything, some remember very simple things, some are given assistance, like the record of their entire life in video form to review and extract a memory, if they can. The cast and direction is brilliant. I shudder to think of what modern Hollywood would do with this ("What dreams may come" being a case in point). It was all extremely simple and believable and has certainly had me talking about it for quite a while since I have seen it. 8 out of 10.

this movie was lovely. i could relate to the people and what they chose as their memories. i wanted to find a memory but i couldn't find one i would want to spend eternity with. so this movie has actually made me want to create beautiful memories before it is too late. see this movie, it might make you evaluate your own life.

The underlying premise and theme of this film is extremely thought-provoking. Within the first 20 minutes, your brain will light up like a Christmas tree as you think of the implications and how you would react in a similar situation. It has the magical ability to awaken nostalgic memories of your own, and several times I had to pause the film so that I could indulge my own private thoughts for a while. Hats off to the director/writer for achieving the necessary balance between fantasy and realism (i.e., taking you to a surreal place whilst not destroying the human perspective).

But the downside... I feel that the director failed to cultivate some of the excellent philosophies which were barely touched upon. This could have been accomplished with more dialogue. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of *talking* in the movie, but it's mostly anecdotal (people wistfully reminiscing about the past). There wasn't enough analysis and barely any *dialogue* (people communicating with each other).

Without ruining anything, I'll give you one example. The premise is, of course, "if you had to pick one memory to relive forever, which would you choose?" One character simply refuses to pick. This is brilliant. As soon as he takes his position, which he does in the first 10 minutes of the film, it woke me up and made me wonder why he would choose this unconventional act of defiance.

But much to my disappointment, this central theme is abandoned. The character is hardly seen again. He does deliver an interesting monologue towards the end which is encapsulated in a single powerful statement he says (I won't tell you what it is). But I couldn't help feeling as if the director didn't really follow through with his philosophy.

Perhaps that was the intent of the director: to present us only with fragments so that we may ponder the philosophy ourselves. But that approach somewhat betrays the nature of art. Art, I believe, should do its best to communicate a complete idea, and *then* open up the floor for discussion. Anything less is a mere Rorshach test. Or whatever you call those inkblot thingees that psychologists use to probe your mind.

As you can probably guess, I'm not a big fan of the Minimalist movement.

Another gripe... Some of the interesting philosophical points were shoved aside to make room for the romantic sub-plot, which I found to be a bit forced and unbelievable. I would have preferred to see the director stick to the heavier issues. If this is truly a film about deep spirituality, why dedicate so much time to a teenage girl's crush on a guy?

So my overall criticism is that there wasn't enough substance presented. I admit there IS the possibility that the dialogue/philosophy I craved was lost in translation. It is possible that the English subtitles didn't convey the philosophy inherent in the original Japanese. That's been known to happen.

But still, I think this film could have truly benefited by a good old fashioned Shakespearian soliloquy, like Hamlet Act III Sc 1, to help clarify the director's message.

Well, here I've wasted my whole review babbling about philosophy, and I haven't touched upon the technical merits of this film. Let me just wrap up by reiterating that THIS IS A GOOD FILM despite my criticism. I love the way the director achieved a surreal feeling without using gimmicky, schlocky clichés like pearly gates and angels and pixie dust. Everything about the production is firmly rooted in reality despite the very unrealistic nature, and that achieves a very bizarre and clever paradox. Also there's no music at all. It's an original, I'll definitely give it that! Give it a whirl. I'll probably watch it a 2nd time myself.