Release Date: August 10, 2021
Prices and Links:
Criterion- $21.96
Amazon- $39.95
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Writer: Hirokazu Koreeda
Starring: Arata Iura, Erika Oda, Susumu Terajima, Takashi Naito, Kyôko Kagawa
If you could choose only one memory to hold on to for eternity, what would it be? That’s the question at the heart of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s revelatory international breakthrough, a bittersweet fantasia in which the recently deceased find themselves in a limbo realm where they must select a single cherished moment from their life to be recreated on film for them to take into the next world. After Life’s high-concept premise is grounded in Kore‑eda’s documentary-like approach to the material, which he shaped through interviews with hundreds of Japanese citizens. What emerges is a panoramic vision of the human experience—its ephemeral joys and lingering regrets—and a quietly profound meditation on memory, our interconnectedness, and the amberlike power of cinema to freeze time.
Original Theatrical Trailer:
Prices and Links:
Criterion- $21.96
Amazon- $39.95
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Writer: Hirokazu Koreeda
Starring: Arata Iura, Erika Oda, Susumu Terajima, Takashi Naito, Kyôko Kagawa
- Japan
- 1998
- 119 minutes
- Color
- 1.66:1
- Japanese
If you could choose only one memory to hold on to for eternity, what would it be? That’s the question at the heart of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s revelatory international breakthrough, a bittersweet fantasia in which the recently deceased find themselves in a limbo realm where they must select a single cherished moment from their life to be recreated on film for them to take into the next world. After Life’s high-concept premise is grounded in Kore‑eda’s documentary-like approach to the material, which he shaped through interviews with hundreds of Japanese citizens. What emerges is a panoramic vision of the human experience—its ephemeral joys and lingering regrets—and a quietly profound meditation on memory, our interconnectedness, and the amberlike power of cinema to freeze time.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 2K restoration, approved by writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Audio commentary featuring film scholar Linda Ehrlich
- New interviews with Kore-eda, stills photographer–cinematographer Masayoshi Sukita, and cinematographer Yutaka Yamazaki
- Deleted scenes
- Trailer
- PLUS: An essay by novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen
Original Theatrical Trailer:
