The Challenge of Creating an Afterlife for Media The setting of Hirokazu Kore-eda's film "After Life" (Japan, 1998) is purgatory, but it's not a limbo where departed, suffering souls expiate their sins. In this version, the dead aren't required to atone for misdeeds, but to reflect on their past. In Kore-eda's vision, purgatory is a shabby state archive where sincere workers execute bureaucratic functions with efficiency and courtesy.