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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.

Brimming with magical realism, sensuality, and humor, the final film by revered filmmaker Shohei Imamura is 'an enlightening, even liberating, experience' (Roger Eber, Chicago Sun-Time) that tells the story of Yosuke Sasano, an unemployed salaryman who arrives in a remote fishing village following a rumor of hidden treasure. Instead, he meets Saeko Aizawa, a charming and unusual woman with a unique problem: a well of warm water inside her longing for release. Saeko faces both shame and adoration for her condition, which the local anglers believe feeds the river and its fish. Intrigued and enamored, Yosuke decides to take up a new life as a fisherman. Through their passionate affair, Imamura paints a picture of longing, fantasy, and the search for true happiness in the most unexpected of places that's both 'nonchalantly freaky and uncommonly pleasurable' (Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice)