The Parades (2024): The bittersweet cinema of the afterlife
2024 • Michihito Fujii • 2.39:1 • Jump to Gallery ↓
In The Parades, directed by Michihito Fujii, a mother wakes up after a catastrophic event to discover that she is dead. She enters a liminal space where deceased individuals gather to make sense of their lives. As she searches for her missing son, she encounters other spirits who are also trying to make sense of unfinished relationships and unresolved emotions.
This melancholy vision of the afterlife takes us to a limbo just outside the living world. Set in a decaying yet luminous and soft-focused abandoned holiday camp, the film tells a meta-cinematic tale in which grieving becomes a filmmaking process. Taking its title from the quiet parade that the dead perform every new moon in the hope of finding their loved ones, the film is infused with the warmth of glowing lanterns and golden-hour light, which transform limbo into a space of community and healing.
Slow and more focused on atmosphere than story, The Parades deals with trauma and grief by offering a comforting, bittersweet vision of the afterlife.
Technical Specs:
- The Story: After a devastating disaster leaves her trapped between life and death, a woman searches for her missing son while drifting among other lingering souls who struggle to move on from their unfinished lives.
- Actors: Masami Nagasawa, Kentaro Sakaguchi, Ryusei Yokohama, Nana Mori, Tetsushi Tanaka, Shinobu Terajima, Lily Franky, Akari Takaishi.
- Director: Michihito Fujii
- Year: 2024
- Cinematographer: Keisuke Imamura
- Origin: Japanese Cinema
- Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
- Genre: Drama / Fantasy
