After Life (1998)
"Wandâfuru raifu" (original title)

After death, people have just one week to choose only a memory to keep for eternity.

Director:

Hirokazu Koreeda

Writer:

Hirokazu Koreeda

Stars:

Arata Iura, Erika Oda, Susumu Terajima

8 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Arata Iura	...	Takashi Mochizuki, counsellor (as Arata)
Erika Oda	...	Shiori Satonaka, trainee counsellor
Susumu Terajima	...	Satoru Kawashima, counsellor
Takashi Naitô	...	Takuro Sugie, counsellor
Kyôko Kagawa	...	Kyoko Watanabe, Ichiro's Wife
Kei Tani	...	Kennosuke Nakamura, boss
Taketoshi Naitô	...	Ichiro Watanabe, who cannot choose his favourite experience
Tôru Yuri	...	Gisuke Shoda, who talks about sex
Yûsuke Iseya	...	Yusuke Iseya, who refuses to choose his experience
Sayaka Yoshino	...	Kana Yoshino, talks about Disneyland
Kazuko Shirakawa	...	Nobuko Amano, who talks about her affair with a married man
Kôtarô Shiga	...	Kenji Yamamoto, who wants to forget his past
Hisako Hara	...	Kiyo Nishimura, old lady who loves cherry blossoms
Sadao Abe	...	Ichiro (as young man)
Natsuo Ishidô	...	Kyoko Watanabe as a young woman

Storyline

After people die, they spend a week with counselors, also dead, who help them pick one memory, the only memory they can take to eternity. They describe the memory to the staff who work with a crew to film it and screen it at week's end; eternity follows. 22 dead arrive that week, assigned to three counselors and a trainee. One old man cannot find a memory, so he watches videotape of his life. Others pick their memory quickly, and the film crew gets right to work. The trainee, 18-year-old Shiori, helps a teenage girl choose a memory other than Disneyland. The youthful staff have a secret and feelings, too, which play out, especially Shiori's affection for her mentor, Mochizuki

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Plot Keywords:

memory | eternity | videotape | teenage girl | old man | 

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Taglines:

What is the one memory you would take with you?

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

17 April 1999 (Japan)

Also Known As:

After Life

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$11,791 (USA) (14 May 1999)

Gross:

$801,985 (USA) (24 March 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Engine Film, Sputnik Productions, TV Man Union

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Was released on DVD in France in 2010, 11 years after its 1999 theatrical release in the country.

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Connections

References September Affair (1950)

User Reviews

The Best Moment of Our Lives

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")