After Life starts is a slow-paced story that never picks up the pace but instead plods on at a steady speed. In some cases this could seem like a criticism but in the case of Hirokazu Koreeda’s After Life this is not so. It fits the tale, the story, perfectly.

The slightly shabby and rundown halfway house or Limbo put me very much in mind of Goran Dukic’s Wristcutters: A Love Story but whereas Dukic’s Limbo was a place for suicides which was just dull enough to be a personal hell, Hirokazu Koreeda’s halfway house is a more joyful place overall, with most of it’s ‘visitors’ imparting their life experiences to the ‘counsellors’ who work there. Like real life there’s a different story and different outlook for every person. It is here that the story is strong, with each person’s best moments, indeed whole stories, being funny, poignant, full of regret, love, loss and all points in between. Each individual cameo seems perfect for the part the play, natural and as if you are just watching a documentary where they are being interviewed. No easy task to get such natural showings.

There are many beautiful moments in the film involving the older ‘visitors’ that will pull at your heartstrings unless you are stone-cold dead inside and just, even as you are enjoying the story, you wonder whether there is indeed a story to it, Koreeda throws a beautiful curveball to show what the story was all about and how it moves the characters on. To be soft and gooey it was quite lovely.

It would be interesting to know if the location presented itself the maker on a low budget or whether it was sought out to fit in with the vision, Either way it is perfect for shabby rundown but functioning ‘processing area’ the cinematography and acting fit the overall look perfectly.
It is difficult to fully judge whether actors are being good or performing poorly when you do not speak the language and only have a slight understanding of the culture but from my point of view the office culture of the main characters and natural ring to the dead seemed pitch-perfect but I would have to leave full judgment to those with a great knowledge than mine.

All in all After Life is high on my list of ‘what happens to you when you die’ genre Wristcutters is up there, along with Heaven Can Wait (1978) and The Amazing Mr Blunden.

To be fair this is an interesting, challenging and fun film but if do not like a leisurely pace, reading subtitles and no explosions and gun play – probably not for you.

The Synopsis of this film states: "After death, people have just one week to choose only a memory to keep for eternity."

Only a handful of directors could have accomplished this film, of which Kore-eda is one. It's a masterful observation on what it is to be human, what we make of our time on this planet and what we leave behind. The recently deceased are interviewed by a panel, to share their favourite memory in life, before they can move on into the afterlife.

The film evokes memories of Bergman movies, and is almost like a Dogme film in terms of production. It also has a touch of Kurosawa about it and no doubt Ozu (who I shamefully haven't seen anywhere near enough of). The cast is presumably made up from both actors and real life people, who are just simply trying to convey their brightest, happiest memories on camera. It works remarkably well in terms of a docu-film style for the first hour or so, then the plot moves on to reveal how the panel are also involved.

It's a pretty ingenious idea from Kore-eda who was making only his 2nd feature. He was a documentary maker before his features, so some of that experience no doubt crossed over into this project. And while it's a very one dimensional film (the setting and tone is constant throughout), Kore-eda nails down the humanism and naturalistic beauty of what it is to be alive.

There is one tiny moment in which an elderly woman recalls caring for her brother just before his death, where she wells up and is overcome with emotion - and that realness, captured and turned into film by Kore-eda is just jaw droppingly moving and brilliant. This is a film that not only shows how scared Kore-eda is of amnesia, loss of feeling and emotion but also truly shows how in tune Kore-eda is with all of it and how he is able to convey it all to us in 2 hours.

8.5/10