The film, After Life, might have been one of the most outstanding and creative movies I have ever seen. However, if you do not enjoy long or complex movies, this movie is probably not for you. The movie revolves around a special office building in which newly dead spirits are sent to. The spirits are not the typical ghost we usually imagine, but just an ordinary being. These newly dead people have to pick their most significant memory to take with them in their afterlife and only this one memory. To facilitate the memory picking process, there are a set of counselors to advise them; these counselors are also dead spirits but they have not picked a memory to take with them to the afterlife. Thus they are stuck to help the newly dead. After the dead people pick a memory, the counselors develop a movie for them. Then the dead watch their movie, and vanish into the unknown afterlife.
The two main characters are Takashi and Shiori, whom are both counselors. Shiori has a secret passion for Takashi; however, Takashi does not have the same burning fire for Shiori. When Takashi counsels one of the newly dead, Ichiro, he finds out that Ichiro married his (Takashi’s) wife after he (Takashi) died in WWII. Ichiro gets placed under a different counselor but Takashi is still troubled by his past memories. Throughout the movie, Takashi questions his love for his former wife and his somewhat interest in Shiori. In the end, Takashi decides to go in the afterlife and chooses to pick a memory of his former wife.
The After Life is creative because the movie does consist completely of actors but improvises with memories from real people’s lives. And oddly, the entire film is in Japanese and as the movie goes on and you read the subtitles, you give the characters specific and distinguished English voices (very strange if you ask me). Also the plot is very out-there and to have such strange situations (as giving the dead an option to pick only one memory to have for the rest of the afterlife, and to have romance between two dead people, the way their lives were portrayed in an old office building, etc) was a masterwork only a genius could design.
The two main characters are Takashi and Shiori, whom are both counselors. Shiori has a secret passion for Takashi; however, Takashi does not have the same burning fire for Shiori. When Takashi counsels one of the newly dead, Ichiro, he finds out that Ichiro married his (Takashi’s) wife after he (Takashi) died in WWII. Ichiro gets placed under a different counselor but Takashi is still troubled by his past memories. Throughout the movie, Takashi questions his love for his former wife and his somewhat interest in Shiori. In the end, Takashi decides to go in the afterlife and chooses to pick a memory of his former wife.
The After Life is creative because the movie does consist completely of actors but improvises with memories from real people’s lives. And oddly, the entire film is in Japanese and as the movie goes on and you read the subtitles, you give the characters specific and distinguished English voices (very strange if you ask me). Also the plot is very out-there and to have such strange situations (as giving the dead an option to pick only one memory to have for the rest of the afterlife, and to have romance between two dead people, the way their lives were portrayed in an old office building, etc) was a masterwork only a genius could design.
No comments:
Post a Comment