#1089: KORE-EDA, Hirokazu: After Life (1998)

KORE-EDA, Hirokazu (Japan)
After Life (1998)
Spine #1089
Blu-ray


If you could choose only one memory to hold on to for eternity, what would it be? That's the question at the heart of Hirokazu Kore-eda's revelatory international breakthrough, a bittersweet fantasia in which the recently deceased find themselves in a limbo realm where they must select a single cherished moment from their life to take into the next world. After Life's high-concept premise is grounded in Kore-eda's documentary-like approach to the material, which he shaped through interviews with hundreds of Japanese citizens. What emerges is a panoramic vision of the human experience -- its ephemeral joys and lingering regrets -- and a quietly profound meditation on memory, our interconnectedness, and the amberlike power of cinema to freeze time.

119 minutes
Color
Monaural
in Japanese
1:66:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2021
Director/Writer


Hirokazu Kore-eda was 36 when he wrote and directed After Life.

Other Kore-eda films in the Collection:

#554: Still Walking (2008)

The Film

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen.

Commentary

Featuring film scholar Linda C. Ehrlich.

Interviews

With Kore-eda and DPs Masayoshi Sukita and Yutaka Yamazaki.

Deleted scenes

Trailers

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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