"After Life," "Broker," "Asura,"

Death, Birth and Life in the hands of the Japanese master storyteller, Hirokazu Kore-eda, in film and television.

“After Life.”

I watched Hirokazu Kore-eda’s lyrical, delicate film “After Life” knowing almost nothing about it (as I often prefer). When it ended, I spent time just staring at things, lost.

“After Life” became one of those transcendent films that are magical and unforgettable.

I told a director/cinephile friend I was going to watch that movie and afterward texted “WOW” to him. He asked if that was my first exposure to Kore-eda other than the recent television series, “Asura.” It was.

His reply: “That was my first and I can remember where I saw it and what it felt like to walk out of it into the Santa Monica afternoon air.”

And of course I knew exactly what he meant, as I searched myself for some way to express what I’d just seen.

Kore-eda seems to be frequently compared to another, older, Japanese master filmmaker, Yasujirō Ozu, whose “Tokyo Story” I wrote about earlier in a column about the Letterboxd “Japanuary” viewing challenge:

---

"Japanuary."

---

Lots of commenters here who are fans of Kore-eda also chimed in about his films as I worked through my feelings on “Asura,” his seven-part Netflix series on an extended Japanese family (with more echoes of Ozu, though I’m now realizing why Kore-eda says his influences are elsewhere and that it’s more clear to me than ever before that the Kore-eda sweet-spot is the depiction of families, in all variations).

After two very slow first episodes of “Asura,” I kept going through the entirety of it and the series is one of my 2025 favorites.

---

The Observer.

---

I’ll come back to “Asura,” but it’s “After Life” and “Broker” that have my thoughts spinning right now. If you’re at all intrigued by ideas, story conception and execution — and we all should be was viewers — you’ve probably had a similar reaction to what I had with those films.

“After Life” is a film with no spoilers — it’s just an idea, beautifully executed. The simplicity of that is staggering, if you give it any thought. The film hides nothing. It just is what it is.