I watched ‘After Life’, a Japanese movie, last night, and it was eerie, yet very moving. No, it wasn’t a horror movie, but it was the plot and the overall concept that set off chills down my spine.

The movie is set in a structure resembling a decrepit travel lodge or social services institution. A group of people who have just died check in at the beginning of each week, and the “social workers” resident in the lodge explain to each guest their situation. The newly-dead have until Wednesday to decide what the single happiest or most significant memory from their life is, and then for the rest of the week the workers make short movies to recreate each person’s chosen memory.

At the end of the week, the movies are shown in the screening room. As soon as each person sees his or her own memory, he or she vanishes to whatever unknown state of existence lies beyond and takes only that single memory with them into eternity.

I personally prefer the Japanese title of the movie, ‘Wandâfuru Raifu’, which means “wonderful life” as opposed to ‘After Life’, because somehow, by choosing a “wonderful” memory, it reflects on the “wonderful [after] life” one will experience.

The screencap below is of my favourite scene from the movie, and I can’t explain why, because I’ll ruin it for those of you who are planning on watching it; it was also the only scene that brought tears to my eyes.

The trailer:

I tried to think of a memory, a single memory, but I couldn’t; I couldn’t remember one that was worthy of preserving for eternity. However, upon further contemplation, I remembered a sole memory that proved itself above others. I was in Egypt spending the summer with my family in the North Coast, and on the third day of being there I decided to sneak out of the chalet at dawn (in retrospective, it was a very stupid thing to do because there’s no telling what might’ve happened). I headed out to the beach, and I sat on the sand with the breeze soothing my sorrows as I watched the sunrise. Never in my entire life had I felt more at peace and unity with myself and my surroundings as I had then; everything seemed so perfect and serene. I can’t believe I almost forgot that memory, I almost forgot the one time my thoughts were at peace with one another. Shame on me.

If you were asked to preserve just one memory, which would it be?

Till next time world.