Before We Vanish

Eccentric, low-key take on BODY SNATCHER tropes loses its sense of humor as it goes along, but does present an intriguing, philosophical approach to its subject matter: that the alien force would steal human emotions rather than typically battling them. Becomes pensive and quite moving in its later stages, leading to a perfect, inconclusive finale. Well performed and marked by some exciting (if low-key) action sequences.

A raw, low-key, clinical and existential fusion of Starman, Body Snatchers and many genres (from road movie to adventure, drama, romance, sci-fi of course and even comedy) in contemporary Japan. The worst an alien (possessing human bodies) can do is to harvest our concepts — when they collect love, invasion is aborted. Kurosawa's use of wide angles is just perfect to demonstrate a constant sense of both menace and mystery. First half if philosophical. Second is violent, explosive and emotion

I think this movie is the perfect match for Dark Tranquillity's song "Insanity's Crescendo" Amazing allegory showing how the concepts of humankind are so futile, and release from them is the 'insanity's crescendo'

It can't quite hit "great" for me (an 80) because it meanders a little. I like the concept (ha) of aliens just taking pieces of our memories from us while we lose them forever. There were some great moments here but because of some fluff between them the pacing is sometimes off. Some of the music is spot on and the ending is genuine and touching.

I'm in love.

If there was like 60-70% more of the teenage girl beating people up and murdering them and it was about 30-40 min shorter then this would have been a really cool movie. As it is, I found the writing to be a bit up its own ass.

a comic sci-fi romance in which alien bodysnatchers "reap" the concepts of the populace (the leery boss has his concept of ‘work' reaped and responds by jumping on desks and flinging paper aeroplanes at his baffled staff) as a way of gathering intel before the invasion, directed by one of the world's finest active imagesmiths? sure why not

the power of love is a curious thing

A gorgeous, offbeat, funny and meaningful film about an alien invasion (but more about what it means to be an empty shell of a human).

what is going on, and why should I care? the writing and cinematography are soap-opera quality

Before We Vanish finds Kiyoshi Kurosawa working within well-established genre guidelines to take a poignant, surprisingly sincere look at the human condition.