After Life
8/23/2025:
This is a hard one for me to review as I have only seen two other Hirokazu Kore-eda films and I think they are all great. I understand what this is going for, and the very premise of this is genius. The execution of this is just lacking to me. I feel it's way less personal then it should be, way too plain, and the rules of this "world" don't make any sense. I would be remiss if I did not mention that this film has one of the coolest looking clocks in the world. I don't know why I had to mention it, but it's really the best! I will have to watch this again at some point
ちょっと残念
Chotto zan'nen
Sort of Disappointing
5/11/2026:
Hirokazu Kore-eda is a really interesting director to me. He always makes the most human and interesting stories with genius ideas, but some how misses the mark subtly with either not going all the way or having bad pacing.
After Life has one of the most creative ideas of what life after death would be. In this, people go into a sort of purgatory, and have three days to select a memory they want to keep with them when they get reincarnated.
So, if that sounds insanely cool, it is! There's so much potential and literally limitless possibilities! That's my main issue with this movie... The first hour of this movie is all these dead people telling their stories and while quite a few are interesting, a lot are really boring. The worst part about it is that we don't even get to see their memories so it just feels like a waste of time.
If I were to remake it, I would only show an example of one person and how the "After Life" people make those memories and spend only 5 - 15 minutes on that before moving on to my favorite part of this film. What do these "angels" do? What are their lives like? What's it like being immortal and spending your entire existence learning about Earth, yourself, and others?
It's here where I really love this movie and it shines. There are a couple of dramatic plot threads in this that follow those "angels" and it's fascinating. Also, I think they can go briefly into the real world and learn about current cultures, but the rules for the "angels" are never clear!
This is just super slow too, I love this but I also wish that it did more. I think this would be the perfect remake for someone really creative. Like I said, this idea has infinite possibilities!!!
This is a hard one for me to review as I have only seen two other Hirokazu Kore-eda films and I think they are all great. I understand what this is going for, and the very premise of this is genius. The execution of this is just lacking to me. I feel it's way less personal then it should be, way too plain, and the rules of this "world" don't make any sense. I would be remiss if I did not mention that this film has one of the coolest looking clocks in the world. I don't know why I had to mention it, but it's really the best! I will have to watch this again at some point
ちょっと残念
Chotto zan'nen
Sort of Disappointing
5/11/2026:
Hirokazu Kore-eda is a really interesting director to me. He always makes the most human and interesting stories with genius ideas, but some how misses the mark subtly with either not going all the way or having bad pacing.
After Life has one of the most creative ideas of what life after death would be. In this, people go into a sort of purgatory, and have three days to select a memory they want to keep with them when they get reincarnated.
So, if that sounds insanely cool, it is! There's so much potential and literally limitless possibilities! That's my main issue with this movie... The first hour of this movie is all these dead people telling their stories and while quite a few are interesting, a lot are really boring. The worst part about it is that we don't even get to see their memories so it just feels like a waste of time.
If I were to remake it, I would only show an example of one person and how the "After Life" people make those memories and spend only 5 - 15 minutes on that before moving on to my favorite part of this film. What do these "angels" do? What are their lives like? What's it like being immortal and spending your entire existence learning about Earth, yourself, and others?
It's here where I really love this movie and it shines. There are a couple of dramatic plot threads in this that follow those "angels" and it's fascinating. Also, I think they can go briefly into the real world and learn about current cultures, but the rules for the "angels" are never clear!
This is just super slow too, I love this but I also wish that it did more. I think this would be the perfect remake for someone really creative. Like I said, this idea has infinite possibilities!!!
Mini Review: This is a hard one for me to review as I have only seen two other Hirokazu Kore-eda films and I think they are all great. I understand what this is going for, and the very premise of this is genius. The execution of this is just lacking to me. I feel it's way less personal then it should be, way too plain, and the rules of this "world" don't make any sense. I would be remiss if I did not mention that this film has one of the coolest looking clocks in the world.
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