Last night - film again! (Little enough on Meetup.) Of the films currently at the top of the list, I fancied After Life - a Japanese film (seems to be a Japanese week for me!) in which people who die are given a choice of selecting one memory to take with them into the afterlife. It's an old film, but has been getting showings in London for the last while - yesterday, only showing in the Rio.
It was an early showing, and I left a little later than intended. Happily, a bus came just as I arrived at the stop! Unhappily, it was lashing rain when I got off.. really a feature of this week. And I had a little way to walk to the cinema.
Got my ticket at the desk - it hadn't sold out, but mostly. The guy said, "You know where Screen 2 is, right?" Eh, no actually. Just as well he gave me directions - he pointed me in the right direction, and said to take the stairs down. If he hadn't, I don't think I'd have figured it out - signposting is very confusing. You end up in an unfinished basement, and find the screen by process of elimination.. inside, mind, it's got lovely, plush, wide leather seats, and I arrived just as the ads were ending. Perfect!
This is a very sweet and touching film. People - old and young - who have just died arrive at a kind of "halfway house", where they're each given a number and assigned to one of a number of counsellors. Each then has explained to them that they'll be there for a week, but only have three days to select one memory from their past life to take with them into eternity. The scenes are then recreated in a film studio, and screened on the seventh day - once each person has seen their memory recreated, they pass on.
Some folks find it harder than others to choose. Some refuse to do so, for one reason or another. It's fascinating to see how the (also dead) folks in the halfway house respond to the challenges of, firstly, helping folks to choose memories, and secondly, recreating them. But the loveliest part of the film, of course, is seeing which memories they choose. Highly recommended - the same director as the more recent Shoplifters, which was nominated in the foreign language category in this year's Oscars. Which probably has something to do with this revival of his works.
And yes, I did get another flat run in.
Tonight, back with London Literary Walks for a Hammersmith Walk. Ooh, and I finally got a locker! so I don't have to make a run home first with my laptop.
Tomorrow, back for our monthly social with ex-colleagues from my last company - this month, gee, you'll never guess.. someone suggested Japanese! :-) So we're off to Shoryu - upon seeing the menu, my boss remarked that it seemed very good value - particularly for Covent Garden! And then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend. Interestingly, my new company has an extra "bank holiday" - they brought in an extra day off some years ago as a reward for people who'd worked hard on a release - and they kept it! So we have two bank holidays in a row. Which means I coincide with Ireland, which has a bank holiday the first Monday in June instead of the last one in May..!
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