Cinema One Originals 2017 | Before We Vanish

For a movie about an alien invasion with apocalyptic undertones, the aliens in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Before We Vanish aren't in too much of a hurry to end humanity as we know it. The film's Japanese title, Sanposuru Shinryakusha (translated roughly as "invaders taking a stroll") reflects a film more concerned with examining humanity's foibles rather than delivering cheap thrills. It's something more uplifting from Kurosawa, something more like Journey to the Shore (2016) than Pulse (2001), even though the apocalyptic imagery is more in line with the latter.

The film follows two narrative threads: illustrator Narumi (Masami Nagasawa) is married to Shinji (Ryusei Matsuda), but the two of them aren't exactly on the best of terms. When Shinji mysteriously disappears then reappears with most of his memories gone, Narumi sees this as an opportunity to reconnect with her estranged husband, who is now mellower  and kinder compared to his older self. Meanwhile, a family is brutally murdered and the prime suspect, the family's daughter Akira, is missing. Jaded journalist Sakurai (Hiroki Hasegawa) is sent to investigate. Neither Narumi nor Sakurai know that the people that they meet are part of an alien invasion force, tasked with learning about humanity before exterminating everything on earth.

Before We Vanish examines the meaning behind human concepts. The aliens learn about humanity by absorbing and taking away a person's conception of things, like "family," "possessions" and so on. While it seems like a horrible thing having certain conceptions taken away from you, the effects are strangely liberating, even cathartic, to the 'victims.' Removing the conception of "work" turns a lecherous boss into a free spirited man; removing the conception of "family" removes a young woman's hangups about independence. The film questions the relevance of the importance we place onto social constructs, and how we restrict ourselves by doing so.

At its very heart, however, Before We Vanish is a love story, and it is the concept of "love," and the lack or abundance of it, that drives the film. It's almost strange to call this a romantic comedy, but in many ways it is, and instead of resorting to cheap theatrics, it moves towards a deeply emotional ending. A love story such as this can be trite in the hands of a lesser director, but Kurosawa handles it well, creating something that can be deeply resonant. 

The film suffers from a couple of flaws: it juggles its tone from time to time, and it may not prove to be effective from everyone. Also, the plot gets rather predictable, and attentive viewers may figure out how the story plays out from certain scenes from the middle of the film. But despite that, Before We Vanish transcends these flaws. It is a powerful film that champions love in all its myriad forms and its power to redeem and transform.