Some people say that "Next Stop, Heaven" is the best tribute Hirokazu Kore-eda has written for a movie, and I think that's true. Before the deceased goes to heaven, he needs to select the memories he wants to save most at a transfer station. The staff of the transfer station try to reproduce that memory in the form of a movie. All other memories of his life will dissipate, and he will stay forever in the memory he chose for himself. Perhaps for Hirokazu-eda, this is the most remarkable thing about the movie. Film can recreate and preserve a story that has passed in an artistic way. Through images, people can re-experience a time in the past that cannot be repeated, has been blurred, or has been forgotten.
Although the film seems to tell the story of the kingdom of heaven, it is actually a celebration of the everyday. And the most beautiful poetry of this movie is that the so-called kingdom of heaven is not a place that is divorced from the pain of reality and full of absolute goodness and beauty. The moment, in that moment we reach the kingdom of heaven.
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