AFTER LIFE
(Japanese with English subtitles)
"After Life" is a simple story about who we are in relation to the people with whom we share our lives. If you, as the reader, could choose one moment from your life that would stay with you for eternity, forsaking all other memories, what would it be? An affectionate moment with a parent? Your first kiss? A wedding day? The birth of a child? A quiet moment in the park? Or time spent in conjugal bliss? The choices are as varied as the life experiences of the human race.
A group of people - souls - gather at a way station where a group of spiritual social workers help them choose that one moment in their mortal lives when they were happiest. They have a week to choose. There are exceptions. Some know exactly what they want, others don’t. They get the chance to play back highlights of their lives on video. Their earthly temperaments dictate most of the choices. A rebellious youth refuses to choose while a middle aged man can’t recall one time when he was really happy. The guides to the afterlife are as equally varied as the souls they are trying to help. Their appearance reflects the age at which they died. Some are young, others old. One has unsuspecting ties to a newcomer. A few are destined to spend their eternity helping others. People seemingly without purpose in life, find their purpose after life.
Writer/director Hirokazu Koreeda creates poignancy from the most mundane situations. A prideful elder comically brags about a lifetime of sexual conquests, both real and imagined. A simple woman wants to relive a childhood family picnic. A sailor who lost his life in war finds meaning through the experience of another. The measure of their lives is boiled down to that one moment when they were either touched by someone special, or their presence unknowingly meant something to someone else. "After Life" presents life itself to be as fleeting as the flickering images on a movie screen. In fact, the record keepers of lives lived whimsically arrange to have each individual soul’s one crowning moment recreated on film to cherish for eternity. Life, death and fantasy merge into a capsule of time, to be remembered not as one might have lived it, but as one would like to remember it.
"After Life" is a temporal and spiritual delight in any life.
"Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941) - Robert Montgomery is a boxer who dies before his time and is forced to live out his life in someone else’s body. Oscars went to the screenwriters for this one.
"Heaven Can Wait" (1978) - A remake of "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" with the sport changed to football. Warren Beatty directed himself and co-wrote the screenplay with Elaine May.
"Heaven Can Wait" (1943) - Dir. Ernst Lubitsch. Yes! The title was used once before. Don Ameche is stopped at the gates of Hades and has to review his life to see if he’s really been as bad as he thinks he has.
"Montana Mike" (original title "Heaven Only Knows")(1947) - This is a sentimental favorite that used to be on TV a lot when I was a kid. Bob Cummings is an angel who comes to earth to guide a hapless gambler(Brian Donlevy) in need of direction in the old west. The ending, a coach ride from earth to the heavens, seems to be inspired by the trolley car scene in the silent classic, "Sunrise"(1927).
"Michael" (1996) - Nora Ephron directs John Travolta as the title character, an angel sent to help a cynical reporter under the pretext of helping someone else. The basic idea sounds a lot like "Montana Mike" with the William Hurt character standing in for the Brian Donlevy role. Hmmmmmm!
"Between Two Worlds" (1944) - Great acting by John Garfield and Sydney Greenstreet among others make this worthwhile if it shows up on the tube some night. Passengers on a ship are bound for heaven, hell, or a second chance at life. I caught this on TV at an impressionable age. (Based on a play called "Outward Bound" which was filmed once before in 1930{never saw it}with Leslie Howard and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.).
"Stairway to Heaven" (American title) ( 1946) - This was remastered for video within the last several years under its original British title, "A Matter of Life and Death."
David Niven is a pilot who must plead for his life in a heavenly court because he believes it’s not his time to go. The poor guy bounces back and forth between heaven and earth every time he gets close to the woman he loves - his reason for living. From the directing and producing team who created "The Red Shoes"(1948) - Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Powell also co-directed the classic 1940 version of "The Thief of Bagdad" with Sabu.