Wandafuru Raifu [After Life] (1998)
The movie exists more as a loosely structured exploration of memory, perspective, and meaning. There's virtually no conflict, and what's present is relatively muted, focusing more on its characters' internal journeys than external drama. It's a solemn, meditative experience - depending on how you approach things like that, you're either going to find this mesmerizing or excruciatingly dull. You can count me in the first camp, by the way - I'm absolutely a fan. But I'm pretty sure if I'd tried watching this a decade ago, I'd be telling you it's about as interesting as watching paint dry, so take that under advisement while I'm recommending it.
Which I absolutely am, incidentally. Assuming you've got a high tolerance for movies interested in every facet of tone and theme to the point plot barely factors, this is an incredible, thought-provoking film you may want to see without hearing any more. So, if all that sounds like something you might be interested in, consider jumping ship now before I get into specifics.
After Life's screentime is broken up between a large number of characters - both spirits of the recently departed and those working in the facility - over the course of a week. I lost count of how many characters related their memories, a handful of which would be shown through development as the workers recreate them as movies.
I should note that we never really learn why they're being recreated. The movie is a bit ambiguous as to whether the spirits retained their original memories or their cinematic recreations, though - seeing as how the nature of memories as shifting, evolving things is central to the theme - I suppose it's essentially one and the same.
Whether the workers are following some divine plan or just sort of made up the details of their work on their own is never explored, though we do learn there are other facilities like this one, and further that workers sometimes move from one to another. And in case you hadn't already pieced it together, the workers are simply spirits who were either unwilling or unable to choose a memory: they can pass on at any time by doing so.
The central storyline is based around the character Takashi (played by Arata), the spirit of a WWII fighter pilot who's been working at the facility ever since his death. His assistant, Shiori (Erika Oda), seems to have a crush on him, but he's mostly living in the past. They're assigned Ichiro (Taketoshi Naito), a somewhat difficult case who spends the bulk of the movie struggling to pick a memory, as he doesn't consider any part of his life particularly meaningful, despite having lived into his 70s.
Gradually, it's revealed that Ichiro was married to a woman who'd been engaged to Takashi prior to his death. Both Ichiro and Takashi figure out this connection, though neither mentions it to the other. Still, their interactions allow them each to select memories connected to her. Shiori is devastated at the idea that Takashi will forget her, but he explains that, because the time he spent at the facility allowed him to come to terms with the memory, he'll remember those at the facility, as well.
The movie ends with Shiori taking on another spirit who'd been unwilling to pick a memory as her assistant and getting ready for a new group of visitors.
But all that's only part of the film, which takes its time exploring various memories and reactions to the scenario. Notably, no one is surprised or particularly upset (everyone seems to understand they've died and accepted that), though the gravity of picking a single memory to retain is of course difficult for several characters. Instead, the movie's main interest is in how we perceive memory.
The scenes where spirits discuss their memories are strikingly realistic, perhaps because some apparently were real - the director recorded people discussing their most important memories and included some of these shots in the finished film. I've seen this movie referred to as a sort of melding of fiction and documentary, and that certainly feels right. I found the effect moving even before I found out how it was made (though, for the record, I kind of suspected: it just feels a little too real at times to be artificial).
By now I assume some of you are noticing I haven't mentioned Christmas yet. And, to be clear, the holiday connections here are admittedly light, with the movie either falling in the far end of "stealth Christmas movie" category or its minimal holiday elements being coincidental or trivial. Let's go through the case for this being a Christmas movie, with the caveat that I'm not entirely committing to that position myself.
First, the movie includes a sequence in which we're shown that it's Christmastime. Sort of. Maybe. When she pieces together that Takashi had some sort of past with Ichiro's wife, Shiori goes out ostensibly in search of locations. She travels into a city, and in one shot we see a Christmas tree in the background. In another, we can see white holiday lights reflected in car windows.
Second, the last third of the movie features snowy imagery heavily, often with music played over it. It should be noted that, with the exception of the above sequence in the city, all music is diegetic, and even in the city the music begins that way but persists in a manner that seems unrealistic (the movie makes a point of demonstrating music we hear elsewhere is at different volumes and clarity depending on where it's heard from, just as memory... you get the idea). The music isn't recognizably Christmas (at least not that I could tell), but it's at least ambiguously evocative of scenes set at Christmas in western movies.
Finally, there's that title. While the movie was called, "After Life" in its U.S. release as a play on the hereafter, the original title is a variation on "Wonderful Life," most likely as a nod to It's a Wonderful Life.
And that's it, at least as far as direct evidence is concerned. Before anyone points it out, the title could easily be a coincidence. As for the snow, it would be a mistake to automatically assume an American movie was a Christmas one on the basis of the weather, let alone a film from a culture where the holiday is less significant. And while the presence of a few lights and decorations is a pretty good indication that those scenes were shot around Christmas, it's certainly possible they weren't intended to represent anything about the movie itself. Hell, maybe that's just how the scheduling worked out.
But I'm skeptical the holiday elements were incidental for a few reasons. First, the movie as whole feels a little too meticulous for something like that to have been dropped in accidentally. In addition, the scene where the holiday decorations appear is fairly close to when it snows, which makes it all come across even more intentional. Throw in the title, and it really feels like the holiday setting means something, even before we try unraveling just what that something is.
Which I should probably at least try answering. Perhaps the movie's invoking the season for its nostalgic associations, which would be appropriate, as nostalgia features heavily in the film. It could also be playing with connections between Christmas as a sort of liminal time outside of time. Or maybe this is simply playing with the tradition of Christmas ghost stories.
Speaking of which, I find the similarities between this and the 1921 silent film, The Phantom Carriage, fascinating, though I want to caution against reading too much into them. Both films are concerned with the intersection of life and death, memory and connections, and both involve characters trapped in limbo. In a sense, the spirits in the facility are sort of ferrymen helping the dead across the divide, but instead of a carriage or boat they use cinema.
I'll be the first to acknowledge the case for this as Christmas media is, at best, tenuous. But regardless of how or when you want to watch it, it's well worth checking out, assuming (again) you've got a high tolerance for slow pacing.
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