After Life is the second of the three films by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda that I've watched recently. Whereas I dubbed Nobody Knows as a Saturn in Leo themed film, After Life reprises the Mercury retrograde in Cancer theme about memories, remembering, and forgetting.
In After Life people who have just died are sent to a way station, or halfway house, between earth and heaven. On Monday morning, each decedent is greeted by a counselor who instructs him or her to select one and only memory from life, one that is the most meaningful or precious, which they will then take to heaven for eternity. Everything else from their lives will be forgotten. They have three days, until sundown on Wednesday, to choose this memory which will then be filmed by the staff at the way station. Some of the dead choose their memories quickly and easily. Some struggle for a time but manage to find one under the gentle guidance of the advisor. Others are unable or unwilling to choose one sole memory from their lives, and therein lies an ironic aspect of the story, which I will not divulge.
One man has remorse about his life. Told he will be able to forget everything but his one memory he says, "Really? You can forget it? Well, then that really is heaven." A friend of mine, whom I've quoted here before, recently passed along to me, his Cancerian friend, who tends to remember too much too well, this quote from Elbert Hubbard: "A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness." Here it is the true token of bliss, heaven itself.
Once the memories are selected, the staff must plan how to film them. On Thursday, they meet and discuss how to recreate the memories. They talk about a scene on a tram, how to recreate clouds for a pilot; they discuss the "difficult cases," those who cannot or will not choose. An assistant goes location scouting; she must find a bamboo grove for a woman's memory of a picnic and swinging between bamboo trees. On Friday are rehearsals and filming. An elderly woman instructs a little girl who plays her in the performance of a dance. Some of the deceased play themselves in the films of their memories; others are played by actors of the age they were at that time.
Saturday is screening day. As each filmed memory plays, the recently deceased soul relives his memory and moves on to spend eternity with it.
Like Nobody Knows, this is a gentle, slow-moving film. There is no surprise ending, no special effects, no dramatic plot twist. There is one exquisite revelation which I will not share, but would it not be a bit of heaven to learn you had once been part of someone else's happiness? Roger Ebert says of this film, "It is like a transcendent version of Ghost, evoking the same emotions, but deserving them."
This year and next year, Mercury is retrograde in the three water signs. And this reflective and thoughtful film about memories (Cancer), death (Scorpio), and heaven (Pisces) was first released in 1999, also a year of Mercury retrograde in water signs. On its release date in Tokyo, April 17, 1999, Mercury was in the last degree of Pisces...how fitting.
Peace to you--Demeter
(Note, i.e., the small print: As for Pisces' rulership of heaven, I think I made that up. Suffice it to say that Pisces does relate to cosmic consciousness, the dissolution of boundaries, and the transcendence of ego. Sounds like heaven to me.)
In After Life people who have just died are sent to a way station, or halfway house, between earth and heaven. On Monday morning, each decedent is greeted by a counselor who instructs him or her to select one and only memory from life, one that is the most meaningful or precious, which they will then take to heaven for eternity. Everything else from their lives will be forgotten. They have three days, until sundown on Wednesday, to choose this memory which will then be filmed by the staff at the way station. Some of the dead choose their memories quickly and easily. Some struggle for a time but manage to find one under the gentle guidance of the advisor. Others are unable or unwilling to choose one sole memory from their lives, and therein lies an ironic aspect of the story, which I will not divulge.
One man has remorse about his life. Told he will be able to forget everything but his one memory he says, "Really? You can forget it? Well, then that really is heaven." A friend of mine, whom I've quoted here before, recently passed along to me, his Cancerian friend, who tends to remember too much too well, this quote from Elbert Hubbard: "A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness." Here it is the true token of bliss, heaven itself.
Once the memories are selected, the staff must plan how to film them. On Thursday, they meet and discuss how to recreate the memories. They talk about a scene on a tram, how to recreate clouds for a pilot; they discuss the "difficult cases," those who cannot or will not choose. An assistant goes location scouting; she must find a bamboo grove for a woman's memory of a picnic and swinging between bamboo trees. On Friday are rehearsals and filming. An elderly woman instructs a little girl who plays her in the performance of a dance. Some of the deceased play themselves in the films of their memories; others are played by actors of the age they were at that time.
Saturday is screening day. As each filmed memory plays, the recently deceased soul relives his memory and moves on to spend eternity with it.
Like Nobody Knows, this is a gentle, slow-moving film. There is no surprise ending, no special effects, no dramatic plot twist. There is one exquisite revelation which I will not share, but would it not be a bit of heaven to learn you had once been part of someone else's happiness? Roger Ebert says of this film, "It is like a transcendent version of Ghost, evoking the same emotions, but deserving them."
This year and next year, Mercury is retrograde in the three water signs. And this reflective and thoughtful film about memories (Cancer), death (Scorpio), and heaven (Pisces) was first released in 1999, also a year of Mercury retrograde in water signs. On its release date in Tokyo, April 17, 1999, Mercury was in the last degree of Pisces...how fitting.
Peace to you--Demeter
(Note, i.e., the small print: As for Pisces' rulership of heaven, I think I made that up. Suffice it to say that Pisces does relate to cosmic consciousness, the dissolution of boundaries, and the transcendence of ego. Sounds like heaven to me.)
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