Film Forum

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s AFTER LIFE returns to Film Forum as part of our regular series, the Young Film Forum (YFF) Archive Dive.
 
Monday morning and a new week begins. The caseworkers arrive, punch in, and start processing 22 new arrivals. One by one, cases are assigned and interviews begin. But this is no ordinary social service agency; it is a waystation for the newly dead. Here the clerks help them select one cherished memory—the single memory that will travel with them for eternity. The interviews are honest, funny, and, at times, heartbreaking. One man recalls a summer breeze blowing through a trolley car. A young girl remembers resting her head in her mother’s lap. For an old woman, it is the memory of cherry blossoms falling. AFTER LIFE is a bittersweet paean to the beauty and fragility of everyday life.

Originally programmed by Karen Cooper and Mike Maggiore for Film Forum
 
1998     119 MIN.     JAPAN

THE YFF ARCHIVE DIVE is a screening series programmed especially for YFF, curated from FF’s rich 55-year history of first-run premieres. The series introduces important, challenging works and underseen masterpieces to members in their 20s, 30s, and early 40s. Learn about YFF here. YFF-eligible members, please email jesse@filmforum.org for details on this and future YFF gatherings.

Reviews

“[Kore-eda] 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.”
– Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

“Slyly humorous, utterly original. Kore-eda jumps straight to the head of the queue as a major international talent with AFTER LIFE.”
– Derek Elley, Variety

“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.”
– Stephen Holden, The New York Times

“Few films about death, or about life for that matter, leave you feeling so affirmative about existence.”
– Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

“An immensely suggestive picture about the role of memory, the function of cinema and the limits of our imagination... don’t miss any opportunity to see it.”
– Philip French, The Guardian

“The director of the multi-prize winning MABOROSI has created another serious, moving, and beautifully crafted film...”
– Geoffrey Brown, The London Times

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