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<\/a>If you consider yourself a cinema enthusiast, you need to see the Hirokazu Koreeda (pronounced Kore-eda<\/em>) film After Life <\/em>(\u00e3\u0192\u00af\u00e3\u0192\u00b3\u00e3\u0192\u20ac\u00e3\u0192\u2022\u00e3\u0192\u00ab\u00e3\u0192\u00a9\u00e3\u201a\u00a4\u00e3\u0192\u2022).\u00c2\u00a0 After Life <\/em>is more than just a good movie; <\/em>it presents a vision of life after death that can give anyone hope.\u00c2\u00a0 Film lovers especially, however, will find themselves nodding in ferocious agreement when one of the deceased remarks, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6that really is <\/em>heaven.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\nThe concept behind the afterlife in After Life <\/em>is that whenever a person dies (even the jerks) they go to a waystation where agents are waiting to help them choose the most significant memory of their life.\u00c2\u00a0 The staff then recreates that event on film.\u00c2\u00a0 After viewing their movie, the deceased are whisked away into a presumably blissful afterlife of that one great memory.\u00c2\u00a0 It sounds awesome, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?<\/p>\n Personally, I would choose hearing my girlfriend explode with blissful laughter and cheers as I tumbled, purposely, down the Tottori sand dunes last year.\u00c2\u00a0 Or the time my dad screamed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Call Syracuse!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d after I won a wrestling tournament that qualified me for another in Syracuse, New York.\u00c2\u00a0 Anyway\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n Koreeda got his start making documentaries for television and is renowned for using a similar style in his non-documentary works as well.\u00c2\u00a0 He accomplishes this in After Life <\/em>by using three different techniques.\u00c2\u00a0 First, handhelds are his camera of choice (before all the cool kids were doing it).\u00c2\u00a0 Occasionally, this gives the illusion that we are chasing after the characters to capture candid moments.\u00c2\u00a0 Other times, it helps us relax and simply enjoy the stories the characters want to tell.<\/p>\n Selecting one<\/strong> perfect moment from a thirty, fifty or eighty-year-long lifetime of memories is tough work.\u00c2\u00a0 Therefore, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153customers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at the waypoint spend the majority of After Life <\/em>simply talking about themselves.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The mock-documentary techniques continue with Koreeda casting many amateur actors (as themselves) to lend realism to the roles. <\/em>Furthermore, much of the film was unscripted to give the amateur actors an opportunity to tell their actual life stories.<\/p>\n The techniques employed by Koreeda to give After Life <\/em>a documentary vibe also serve to make the film feel \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 This credibility helps viewers develop an appreciation for the characters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lives.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 I now understand why the families in Depatures <\/em>say\u00e3\u20ac\u0152\u00e3\u0081\u0160\u00e7\u2013\u00b2\u00e3\u201a\u0152\u00e6\u00a7\u02dc\u00e3\u0081\u00a7\u00e3\u0081\u2014\u00e3\u0081\u0178\u00e3\u20ac\u008dto their departing loved ones.<\/p>\n After Life <\/em>does have an overarching plot but this is not the most important aspect of the film.\u00c2\u00a0 The purpose of After Life <\/em>is not to find out how an eighteen-year-old deals with her emotions or how a long-dead man finally chooses his memory.\u00c2\u00a0 Those conflicts are at best subplots to the amazing life stories of the deceased and the charming way in which their significant memories are brought to life on film.\u00c2\u00a0 Koreeda has imagined what I believe to be the perfect afterlife: warm, comforting and all about making movies.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed After Life<\/em> and find yourself craving more Koreeda, definitely check out Nobody Knows <\/em>(\u00e8\u00aa\u00b0\u00e3\u201a\u201a\u00e7\u0178\u00a5\u00e3\u201a\u2030\u00e3\u0081\u00aa\u00e3\u0081\u201e) next.\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody Knows <\/em>is based on the true story of a Japanese mother that abandoned her four young children (from four different fathers) in a Tokyo apartment.\u00c2\u00a0 Once again, Koreeda used amateur actors and his signature documentary style to create \u00e2\u20ac\u0153reality cinema,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d an atmosphere that serves his heavy subject matter particularly well.\u00c2\u00a0 You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll laugh, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll cry, but most of all you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll want to punch the mother in the face.<\/p>\n Thanks for watching!<\/p>\n