A Japanese film stirred up a storm inside me

Have I already lived the best memory of my life…

Words are important to me. Conversations are essential. Screenplay and story arc are what captivate me.

The nuances and intricacies of daily life are what I want to explore further, be it fictional or real-life stories.

The films of Hirokazu Kore-Eda provide precisely this. Exploring and exposing the absurdities of us and our relationships.

His films do not have right and wrong or good and bad. Kore-Eda films float in the grey zone, where we all breathe.

After Life has a very simple yet intriguing plot. Nothing extravagant like Nolan or Tarantino films.

However, the grandeur of the simplicity in these films is what I prefer.

After death, people have a week to choose only one memory to keep for eternity.

That is the plot of the film and I do not want to pull out the rug from under your feet. I would rather that you enjoy and explore the film yourself.

But ever since watching this film, I’ve been pondering one thing repeatedly: What is that one memory that I will choose to keep for eternity?

What agitates me is that have I already lived my best memory? I have already made a mental checklist for my ‘one memory’. Does this also mean that I will never reach that peak in my life again?

Maybe I should simply live in the present and do my best to make that one memory. In doing so, what if the best memory of my life will start to fade.

Is it beyond my control and reach to create such a memory? Maybe it will just happen on an ordinary day while preparing breakfast.

To retrieve that one memory, I don’t want to delve too deeply into my past. Each city that I have lived in has given me so much. However, it also took pieces of me that I was never able to get back.

They are as lost as the names of my favorite cafes in those cities. Only a vague memory, sensation, and smell of those places and people survived.

I’m not sure if it would be a tear-jerker when I go back to those places and walk the same streets again, or if I’d feel a throbbing pain in my chest.

I think I have already experienced that one memory, written down in some old journal beneath the layers of dust.

It might be that one particular text message in my old chat, where time has drifted to a halt.

I will go check the ruins of some not-so-distant past one more time, I am certain it is breathing there.

If you were to die today, do you already have that one memory to keep for eternity?