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Wandafuru raifu

After Life
On Transmission 2020
© Celluloid Dreams
In an intermediate realm between life and death, newly deceased people arrive every Monday. In the course of a conversation, each soul is asked to select a particularly valuable memory from their life which they would like to keep for eternity and take with them into the hereafter. Each group spends a week in the transition area to determine the decisive moment in their lives. As they make up their minds, these people of different ages are guided and accompanied by other deceased people who have not (yet) managed to choose their own dearest memory. In the second half of the week, they are asked to make a short film about their selected memory.
Hirokazu Kore-eda interviewed more than 500 people from all walks of life about their memories in preparation for his film. In Wandafuru raifu (After Life), he combines footage of these interviews with improvised and script-based scenes, and in this mixing of reality and fiction, he reflects on the ambiguous nature of human memory.
by Hirokazu Kore-eda
with Arata, Erika Oda, Susumu Terajima, Takashi Naito, Kei Tani, Taketoshi Naito Japan 1998 Japanese 119’ Colour

With

  • Arata (Takashi Mochizuki)
  • Erika Oda (Shiori Satonaka)
  • Susumu Terajima (Satoru Kawashima)
  • Takashi Naito (Takuro Sugie)
  • Kei Tani (Ken-nosuke Nakamura)
  • Taketoshi Naito (Ichiro Watanabe)

Crew

Written and Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Cinematography Yutaka Yamazaki, Masayoshi Sukita
Editing Hirokazu Kore-eda
Music Yasuhiro Kasamatsu
Sound Design Osamu Takizawa
Production Design Hideo Gunji, Toshihiro Isomi
Producers Masayuki Akieda, Shiho Sato

World sales

Celluloid Dreams

http://www.celluloid-dreams.com http://www.celluloid-dreams.com

Produced by

Engine Film

http://engine-f.co.jp http://engine-f.co.jp

Photos

Hirokazu Kore-eda

© Mikiya Takimoto

Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1962, he began his career as a documentary filmmaker and, in 2014, founded the Bun-Buku production company. His films have screened regularly in competition at Cannes, with Shoplifters winning the festival’s Palme d’Or in 2018. The film was also nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. His most recent film, La vérité, starring Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche, opened the 2019 Venice International Film Festival.

Filmography (selection)

1991 Kougai ha Doko he Itta (Lessons from a Calf); TV documentary 1995 Maboroshi no Hikari (Maborosi) 1998 Wandafuru Raifu (After Life) 2001 Distance 2004 Dare mo Shiranai (Nobody Knows) 2006 Hana yorimo Naho (Hana) 2008 Aruitemo Aruitemo (Still Walking) · Daijoubu de Aruyouni Cocco Owaranai Tabi (Wishing You’re Alright – Journey Without an End by Cocco) 2009 Kuuki Ningyo (Air Doll) 2010 Nochi no Hi (The Days After); TV movie 2011 Kiseki (I Wish) 2013 Soshite Chichi ni Naru (Like Father, Like Son) 2015 Umimachi Diary (Our Little Sister) 2016 Umi yorimo Mada Fukaku (After the Storm) · Ishibumi (Carved in Stone) 2017 Sandome no Satsujin (The Third Murder) 2018 Manbiki Kazoku (Shoplifters) 2019 La Vérité (The Truth)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2020