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IMDbPro

After Life

Original title: Wandafuru raifu
  • 19981998
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 59m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
12K
YOUR RATING
After Life (1998)
Home Video Trailer from New Yorker Films
Play trailer2:01
1 Video
46 Photos
  • Drama
  • Fantasy
After death, people have a week to choose only one memory to keep for eternity.After death, people have a week to choose only one memory to keep for eternity.After death, people have a week to choose only one memory to keep for eternity.
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
12K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Hirokazu Koreeda
  • Writer
    • Hirokazu Koreeda
  • Stars
    • Arata Iura
    • Erika Oda
    • Susumu Terajima
Top credits
  • Director
    • Hirokazu Koreeda
  • Writer
    • Hirokazu Koreeda
  • Stars
    • Arata Iura
    • Erika Oda
    • Susumu Terajima
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 120User reviews
    • 51Critic reviews
    • 91Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 7 wins & 8 nominations

    Videos1

    After Life
    Trailer 2:01
    After Life

    Photos46

    Susumu Terajima in After Life (1998)
    After Life (1998)
    After Life (1998)
    After Life (1998)
    After Life (1998)
    Susumu Terajima in After Life (1998)
    After Life (1998)
    After Life (1998)
    After Life (1998)
    After Life (1998)
    After Life (1998)
    After Life (1998)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Arata Iura
    • Takashi Mochizuki, counselor
    • (as Arata)
    Erika Oda
    • Shiori Satonaka, trainee counselor
    Susumu Terajima
    Susumu Terajima
    • Satoru Kawashima, counselor
    Takashi Naitô
    • Takuro Sugie, counselor
    Kyôko Kagawa
    Kyôko Kagawa
    • Kyoko Watanabe, Ichiro's Wife
    Kei Tani
    • Kennosuke Nakamura, boss
    Taketoshi Naitô
    Taketoshi Naitô
    • Ichiro Watanabe, who cannot choose his favourite experience
    Tôru Yuri
    • Gisuke Shoda, who talks about sex
    Yûsuke Iseya
    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
    Tomomi Hiraiwa
    • Receptionist
    Tae Kimura
    • Dining Hall Worker
    Yasuhiro Kasamatsu
    • Director
      • Hirokazu Koreeda
    • Writer
      • Hirokazu Koreeda
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Much of the action in After Life is shown as interviews conducted with the recently deceased regarding their lives. Some of these interviews were scripted, but many were done impromptu, with real people (not actors) reminiscing about their own lives.
    • Quotes

      Kenji Yamamoto, who wants to forget his past: Say I choose a memory, from when I was eight or ten years old. Then I'll only remember how I felt back then? I'll be able to forget everything else? Really? You can forget? Well, then that really is heaven.

    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: Notting Hill/Besieged/Trekkies/Tea with Mussolini/After Life (1999)

    User reviews120

    Review
    Top review
    10/10
    The quality of our life
    "When we come to the last moment of this lifetime and we look back across it, the only thing that's going to matter is 'What is the quality of our love?" - Richard Bach

    One of the most commonly reported aspects of near-death experiences is the life review, the seeing and re-experiencing of major and trivial events of one's life, sometimes from the perspective of the other people involved. Most say that the single most important lesson they learned is that the actions we think are trivial and unimportant turn out to be the most important, especially ones that involve spontaneous acts of love. While not exactly a life review, in After Life by Hirokazu Koreeda, a group of recently deceased people are asked to look back at their life and choose only one memory from their life that they want to take with them to eternity. The process compels people to look at their life in its entirety and see what worked and what was missing.

    Set in a dreary barracks-like way station, civil servants meet with those just crossed over to help them choose the experience they want to hold on to. For some, the choice is easy, for others it is difficult. Those that will not or cannot choose are consigned to work in the substation with the newly deceased until they are ready to move on. The counselors work one on one with each individual telling them that they have three days to make their choice. Once a memory is selected, a film crew recreates the memory-- sets are built and the little touches of sights and sounds are selected until the deceased are satisfied that they are witnessing a perfect recreation of their experience. It is that film that they take with them, not the original memory.

    At first some choose things such as a trip to Disneyland, a sexual encounter, or a memorable bowl of rice but later gravitate toward experiences that are more meaningful. The center of the film revolves around those who are unable to choose. Ichiro Watanabe (Taketoshi Naito) is a 70-year old management consultant who has led an uneventful life and is challenged to find a memory he thinks is worth preserving for all time. To help him in this process, he is allowed to scan through piles of videotapes representing each year of his life. One young man wants to choose a dream instead of an actual event. Another wants to forget his past entirely, and an elderly woman is stuck in the mindset of a nine-year old girl.

    After Life is the story of the caseworkers as well. Takashi Mochizuki (Arata) has been stuck in limbo because he cannot find any happiness in his twenty-two years until he realizes how his short life deeply affected someone else. His perfect realization also affects a co-worker Shiori (Erika Oda) who has fallen in love with him. After Life is a beautiful and touching film that allows us to reflect on the things that brought us joy in our own life, and to recognize that true happiness lies, not in outward symbols of success, but in giving ourselves to others.
    helpful•67
    5
    • howard.schumann
    • Oct 25, 2004

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 17, 1999 (Japan)
    • Country of origin
      • Japan
    • Language
      • Japanese
    • Also known as
      • La vida después de la muerte
    • Production companies
      • Engine Film
      • Sputnik Productions
      • TV Man Union
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $801,985
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $11,791
      • May 16, 1999
    • Gross worldwide
      • $801,985
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 59 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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