Friday, April 8
After Life
dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan 1998

Kore-eda sets his fable at an old building where the 22 people arrive in a magical white fog — could it be the end of the blinding-white tunnel that follows death? — and are greeted by a group of caseworkers.

For a while, it feels like some casual social gathering, but one where strangers chat easily with the luxury of time. Then, the dead are taken to private rooms and given one week to pick a memory that was "most meaningful or precious'' — a memory that will be their companion in the afterlife.

What follows is a series of individual portraits, beautifully acted, that have the honesty and freshness of a documentary. Kore-eda researched After Life with 500 videotaped interviews, and then chose 10 nonactors to speak about their own lives, intercutting them with actors playing from the script. - Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle