What happens when you die? Is there a heaven or a hell? In Hirokazu Koreeda’s After Life (Wandâfuru raifu aka Wonderful Life) things are rather different. When an individual dies, they enter a building where they are taken by individuals to assess and help them choose one memroy from their past that they wish to take with them. This memory is the only evidence of their life that they are allowed to take, with no other memory or feelings from any other time.

The dead enter the building and are given three days to make their choice with their counsellor’s advice. Being the dead, the variation in characters is brilliant. There are those that have a clear, concise idea of their perfect memory. Whether it’s a day trip to Disneyland, sleeping on their mother’s lap as a child, or a memory as a teenager with a loved one.

After Life is quite an interesting film as it’s filmed as part movie, and part documentary. The interviews and assessments made with the visiting dead are created with a documentary feel, offering a focus on the indiviudlal’s commentary and thoughts, ignoring the presence of the counsellor’s in the room. The conversations are absolutely engrossing, offering a charm and detail that’s unlike any I’ve seen. You become convinced you’re watching the dead retell their happiest moments in their life.

Of course, with some of the dead, you get the inadvertent trouble makers, or those who are simply too average to have found any moment of happiness in their life. Perhaps they chose to live a life that was far too normal, never wanting for excitement or anything extraordinary. These are the people that have the greatest difficulty picking their happiest moments.

Out of these difficult dead, there’s one who simply refuses to select a memory. Over the three days, he continues to wish to select a dream, or perhaps an idea of the future that he wishes to live in. He’s refused, but continues to persist in his devotion to not pick a memory. Bored of life when he existed, and bored of life in his death too.

There’s also a slowly developing romance between two of the counsellors. One of them is aged 22 but died during the World War, and would be in his 70s, the other is a young female. It’s an interesting dichotomy for the female, as the counsellor becomes obsessed with one of his dead clients, who lived an ordinary life around the time he died. He married, lived a so-so job, but lived a life. The individual in question has no memory of happiness, and is asked to go through videotapes of his memories to select a moment that he wishes to relive. It’s a life the counsellor envies, simply becuase he died too young. The vision of this indivudla’s wife is something he desires, and so the female counsellor endeavours to make him happy.

Just when you think that the concept won’t be taken any further, that when the three days are up it’s the end of the film, the idea is taken to the nth degree with the dead counsellors and the dead clients working together to recreate the single memory they will take with them to eternity. A film set of sorts is presented and the two gorups nit pick anf film this one memory for each individual to be taken to their metaphorical grave

Performances throughout are flawless, convincing and superbly tender. There isn’t a moment when you’re not mesmerised by the onscreen acting. Visually the film is wonderful, with the contrast between the dull, gray of the building nad the crisp white snow outside. Everything about the film is simple, from the number of actors, to the simplicity of having a table and a couple of chairs in a large open room as the set for conversation.

After Life is a brilliant and fascincating film that deals with not just the dead, but what an invidual has achived in life, their hopes, dreams and what they have left behind in the living world. It often made me think whether I would have any evidence of my life, that perfect moment that I could relive and only remember and know happiness. I don’t think i’ve lived such a life just yet, but hopefully this film can inspire others as it has me. .

Verdict: A beautiful, reflecting film about the after life