Sunday, February 4, 2007
Last night I watched...
...an amazing movie (about which many of you may know...I'm discovering it 9 years after it's initial release, it seems): After Life, a Hirokazu Kore-eda production. I watched it alone, after my mother retired, because I knew nothing about the film except the extremely short description provided by our online movie rental facility. As you know if you've read about my mother's and my film experiences here, she is not particularly facile with films with subtitles, although she often surprises me on this one, so I thought I'd watch it first to see if I couldn't determine whether she might have trouble with this one. I'm still not sure, but the concept of the movie is so intriguing that I'm going to run it for her, anyway. There are many contemplative aspects to this film which will no doubt spellbind me for some time. I am very curious to see how the overt premise of the movie strikes my mother: Essentially, it records a week in the "life" of the newly dead, in which they are required to select one memory from their life in which they will live for eternity, forgetting everything else; the memory is then recreated and video taped for each person, after the viewing of which the person is transported from the movie into their chosen memory. I wonder if my mother will be motivated to review her own memories, of which she retains many, and chose one. I vaguely remember, which I've previously mentioned, that she once wrote that a preteen memory of an encroaching fire and the community excitement and activity it engendered was "one of the happiest times" of her life. If she finds the idea of picking one memory provocative, I wonder if it will be this, or some other memory.
One of the dead is a woman, Nishimura Kiyo (played by Hara Hisako) who looks to be very old. She doesn't speak in the film, although, at one point, she answers a few questions about her life by shaking her head. As mentioned by those attending her, she seems to have come into death already embraced in her memory. The film production notes indicate that one of Hirokazu Kore-eda's inspirations for this movie was his experience of his grandfather, who developed progressive Alzheimer's before Alzheimer's was a word, as he said. Hirokazu Kore-eda was six when his grandfather's mental journey became evident and watched as this journey progressed. Through the development of Nishimura Kiyo, Hirokazu Kore-eda seems to be ruminating about the possible memories that his grandfather may have been experiencing and how he may have been experiencing them, even as, to others, his grandfather appeared to be losing his memory.
A little over awakening time for my mother...I've been looking for a still, and maybe some information, on the web of the enchanting logo on the flag above the the facility through which the dead are processed. Nothing, so far.
As for me? I'm thinking, myself, of what memory I would chose if pressed. After running through a raft of memories, I'm thinking that perhaps I have not yet lived the experience that will become my memory.
Mom's up and in the bathroom.
Later.
One of the dead is a woman, Nishimura Kiyo (played by Hara Hisako) who looks to be very old. She doesn't speak in the film, although, at one point, she answers a few questions about her life by shaking her head. As mentioned by those attending her, she seems to have come into death already embraced in her memory. The film production notes indicate that one of Hirokazu Kore-eda's inspirations for this movie was his experience of his grandfather, who developed progressive Alzheimer's before Alzheimer's was a word, as he said. Hirokazu Kore-eda was six when his grandfather's mental journey became evident and watched as this journey progressed. Through the development of Nishimura Kiyo, Hirokazu Kore-eda seems to be ruminating about the possible memories that his grandfather may have been experiencing and how he may have been experiencing them, even as, to others, his grandfather appeared to be losing his memory.
A little over awakening time for my mother...I've been looking for a still, and maybe some information, on the web of the enchanting logo on the flag above the the facility through which the dead are processed. Nothing, so far.
As for me? I'm thinking, myself, of what memory I would chose if pressed. After running through a raft of memories, I'm thinking that perhaps I have not yet lived the experience that will become my memory.
Mom's up and in the bathroom.
Later.
