After Life

    After Life
    1998

    Synopsis

    On a cold Monday morning, a group of counselors clock in at an old-fashioned social services office. Their task is to interview the recently deceased, record their personal details, then, over the course of the week, assist them in choosing a single memory to keep for eternity.

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    Cast

    • Arata IuraTakashi Mochizuki
    • Erika OdaShiori Satonaka
    • Susumu TerajimaSatoru Kawashima
    • Takashi NaitoTakuro Sugie
    • Kei TaniKennosuke Nakamura
    • Kyōko KagawaKyoko Watanabe
    • Tōru YuriGisuke Shoda
    • Yûsuke IseyaYusuke Iseya
    • Sayaka YoshinoKana Yoshino
    • Kazuko ShirakawaNobuko Amano

    Recommendations

    • 100

      Chicago Sun-Times

      Kore-eda, with this film and the 1997 masterpiece "Maborosi," has earned the right to be considered with Kurosawa, Bergman and other great humanists of the cinema. His films embrace the mystery of life, and encourage us to think about why we are here, and what makes us truly happy.
    • 100

      The New York Times

      After Life becomes a quiet, extraordinarily moving and sometimes funny meditation on the meaning and value of life. It intimates that whatever happiness we may find in life comes from within and is self-created.
    • 91

      The A.V. Club

      The film, and the films within the film, are like a dream with a message about savoring existence: Learn to love in life, or risk leaving it without leaving an impression.
    • 89

      Austin Chronicle

      Contemplative, though riddled with humor, After Life reveals itself gradually.
    • 88

      New York Daily News

      The memories recalled here aren't epic tales, just moments that make life worth living. Like seeing a good movie. [12 May 1999, p.44]
    • 88

      New York Post

      At first, it seems stagy and slow and even to verge on the pretentious, but the film steadily accumulates dramatic power as its carefully sketched characters reveal their internal lives. By its end, After Life has developed into one of those haunting movies whose scenes can pop back into your consciousness hours or days after you have seen it. [12 May 1999, p.56]
    • 83

      Entertainment Weekly

      The simplicity and poignancy of the choices — riding a bus, swinging on a swing — and the great variety of interviewees result in a film of nonsticky freshness, as well as unforced profundity.
    • 80

      Chicago Reader

      Though it comes across as labored in spots, it also yields a good many beautiful and suggestive moments, and an overall film experience of striking originality.

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