is a 2017 Japanese science fiction film directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. It is based on a stage play by Tomohiro Maekawa's Ikiume Theatre Company and the novel adaptation written by Maekawa. It stars Masami Nagasawa, Ryuhei Matsuda, Mahiro Takasugi, Yuri Tsunematsu, and Hiroki Hasegawa.

Before We Vanish earned two nominations at the 41st Japanese Academy Film Prize. The film had its world premiere in competition at the Un Certain Regard section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2017. The film also received an award at the Sitges Film Festival – Official Selection.

Plot
An alien in the form of a schoolgirl named Akira (Yuri Tsunematsu) apparently kills her family, then walks carelessly down the middle of a street, causing an evading semi to overturn. A second alien has taken over the body of a man, Shinji (Ryuhei Matsuda), whose wife Narumi (Masami Nagasawa) is flustered by the profound changes to his personality. He asks her to guide him.

A third alien has taken over the body of a teenage boy, Amano (Mahiro Takasugi). He connects with a freelance journalist, Sakurai (Hiroki Hasegawa), who becomes his guide. Amano admits to Sakurai that he is an alien, and Sakurai eventually believes and assists him. The aliens do not threaten their guides. Amano and Sakurai ultimately track down Akira. The three travel together, although Sakurai is disturbed by Akira's violence.

The aliens are advanced scouts for a mass invasion of Earth. To learn how humans live and think, they steal themes or philosophical concepts  from humans, who then can no longer understand them. Thus, alien Amano takes "freedom" from human Amano's parents and they become servile. Shinji takes "family" from Narumi's sister, who leaves while telling Narumi to back off. He later takes "possession" from a young shut-in, who proceeds to go out in the world as an advocate against materialism. Alien Shinji becomes, in many respects, a better husband to Narumi. "Shinji is broken," he says to Narumi, "I'll rebuild him."

Government authorities are working to locate Akira, who they view as being at the center of a release of a dangerous virus. A state of emergency is declared, with the SDF becoming involved. Meanwhile, Amano and Akira must meet with Shinji to trigger the start of the invasion. Sakurai initially works to prevent this, but after the human forms of the two young aliens are killed, he tries to initiate the invasion himself.

Narumi invites Shinji to take "love" from her, and he does. He is overwhelmed by the feeling; he is surprised by how complicated "love" is. Meanwhile, Narumi no longer can feel emotion. The invasion is called off. Sakurai is dead after the attack from war plane. At the same time, Narumi and Shinji arrive at the hill where they can see the ocean. Suddenly, Aliens start invading to the earth, and attack Narumi and Shinji, but they survive.

Two months later, Aliens stop invading the Earth, and many humans survived. However, many people lost the concept of who they are and have lasting physical and mental damage that has no clear way to cure.

Shinji was found to be working for the relief effort at the film's end while Narumi was hospitalized because she had lost the concept of love and all related emotions. Shinji said that the invasion stopped because the aliens learned from the humans. The relief doctor noted that at the time of the invasion humans faced many serious problems of their own making that no longer as a positive result of the Alien invasion.

Cast

Production
The production was conducted from the end of July to August 2016.   Filming took place in Ibaraki Prefecture, Tochigi Prefecture, Saitama Prefecture, Shizuoka Prefecture, and Kanagawa Prefecture.

In Tochigi Prefecture, they used an abandoned factory as the survival game field appearing at the end of film. Additionally, in the end of August 2016, they used Kirin Beer factory as the wasteland.

The home where Narumi and Shinji lived was shot on location. Famous production designer, Ataka Norifumi, said that he put many diagonal lines or shapes on the inside of the house on purpose so that it could imply the awkwardness between Narumi and Shinji.  Also, he mentioned that he took away warmer tone colors so that audience can see the low energy of the couple.

Variety mentions that Nagasawas Masami, the protagonist, changed her acting style from earlier in her career. The transformation showed in her strong presence in the film.

Because of trust that Kurosawa puts in his crew, he develops great core team of crew members; Akiko Ashizawa for camera and Yusuke Hayashi for score.

Akiko Ashizawa, Director of Photography, chose to shoot on Arri Alexa XT Plus with anamorphic lens.  The beautiful image coming out from the camera helped push the narrative effectively.

Music 
The original soundtrack album was released on 6 September 2017 from Pony Canyon label. The soundtrack has 26 songs.

Release 
The film had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2017. It was released in Japan on 9 September 2017.

Reception

Box office 
In Japan, the film made $448,829 in its opening weekend.

Critics 
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 79%, based on 48 reviews, and an average rating of 6.48/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Before We Vanish finds Kiyoshi Kurosawa working within well-established genre guidelines to take a poignant, surprisingly sincere look at the human condition." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score 64 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter said, "Perpetually shifting gear between playful sci-fi pastiche, quirky rom-com and apocalyptic thriller, Before We Vanish might have worked better as a single dedicated genre, but it becomes a little scrambled trying to cover several at once." Hollywood Reporter gave a harsh critique on this film. He also pointed out its running time. He said it could have been shorter based on the plot events of the film. Its long duration created by director Kurosawa just led the audience to be impatient, and lost the suspense. Inconsistent elements can be seen in the film, he wrote; lack of explanation about Sakurai’s motivation for offering his body to the alien, or Narumi’s motivation for taking care of her situation with her husband rather than saving the Earth. Lastly, he mentioned that last action sequences are too late to show though their visuals were spectacular. After all, they sum up the review with this sentence  “With the tonally incontinent Kurosawa at the helm, it is hard to tell which.”

Meanwhile, Maggie Lee of Variety said, "Playing frequently like an absurdist political satire with only flashes of violence, this low-tension, drawn-out work won't gratify the chills or adrenaline rushes fanboys crave, but the ending strikes a romantic chord so pure that all but the most jaded cynics will be moved."

Simon Abrams wrote a review on Roger Ebert.com. He started off saying that 130 minutes running time is too long considering the amount of character development and plots of Alien invasion drama. He also mentioned that there is not much reasoning for the character's behavior. For example, towards the end of the film, human guides start building deeper connections with invaders, but sometimes clear reasons are not shown in the film.  However, he acclaimed Kurosawa’s direction for actors He pointed out that some people do not like the emotional flow happening in the movie, unnatural dialogue, lack of character development. After all, he recommends this film because of its unique concept that aliens try to steal concepts from humans. RogerEbert.com gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, commenting that "its naive hopefulness is infectious, and its big ideas are captivating."

Based on the review done by Film Inquiry, Before We Vanish gave a good impression. They gave high acclaims for the way Kurosawa directed the science fiction film. Specifics mentioned were the uniqueness of the young girl covered by blood, and violent visual images that  referred to 1950s Science Fiction.They said “This extraterrestrial attempt at understanding human emotion through a series of concepts is a clever idea.” The plot of the film went over the expectations that viewers have towards standard science fiction films featuring aliens. However they pointed out that some critics thought the film duration could  have been cut shorter, though it is 130 minutes long; they thought some plot points were “needlessly drawn out”.

Accolades

Legacy
Foreboding was created as a spin-off of Before We Vanish. It was released in theaters in Japan on 11 November 2017.

References

External links
 

2017 films
2017 science fiction films
Japanese science fiction films
2010s Japanese-language films
Films directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Films shot in Japan
2010s Japanese films
《산책하는 침략자》(, )는 마에카와 토모히로가 주재하는 극단 이키우메의 2005년 초연 무대 및 이를 원작으로 2007년 출판 소설, 2017년 공개된 일본 영화이다.

무대

2005년 
2005년 10월에 도쿄 선 몰 스튜디오에서 상연.

2007년 
2007년 9월 12일부터 16일 도쿄 아오야마 원형 극장, 같은 해 9월 29일과 30일에 오사카 HEP HALL에서 개최되었다.

2011년 
2011년 4월 23일, 24일에 KAAT 가나가와 예술 극장 대 스튜디오, 같은 해 5월 13일부터 29일에 도쿄 씨어터 트램, 같은 해 6월 4일과 5일 오사카 ABC 홀, 같은 해 6월 12일 키타큐슈  예술 극장 중 극장에서 상연 되었다.

2017년 
2017년 10월 27일부터 11월 19일에 도쿄 씨어터 트램, 같은 해 11월 23일부터 11월 26일에 오사카 ABC 홀, 같은 해 12월 3일 키타큐슈 예술 극장 중 극장에서 상연 되었다.

소설 
 《산책하는 침략자》
 단행본 : 미디어 팩토리 2007년 12월 12일 발행, ISBN 978-4840121095
 단행본 : 카도카와 문고 2017년 7월 25일 발행, ISBN 978-4041026304

극단 이키우메의 주재이며 극작가와 연출가도 맡고 마에카와 토모히로가 자신의 무대를 바탕으로 한 소설이다.

영화 

2017년 9월 9일 개봉. 감독은 쿠로사와 기요시. 전국 181개 스크린에서 공개된 2017년 9월 9, 10일의 첫날 2일간 흥행 수익 4,200만엔, 동원 3만 1,000명으로, 영화 관객 동원 랭킹 (흥행 통신사 조사)에서 첫 등장  제10위를 차지했다.

제70회 칸 영화제 주목할 만한 시선 부문에 초청 되었고, 북미 외에 전세계 21개국에서 공개되는 것이 결정되었다.

출연 
 카세 나루미 : 나가사와 마사미
 카세 신지 : 마츠다 류헤이
 사쿠라이 : 하세가와 히로키
 아마노 : 타카스기 마히로
 타치바나 아키라 : 츠네마츠 유리
 성직자 : 히가시데 마사히로
 쿠루마다 형사 : 코지마 카즈야
 카세 아스미 : 마에다 아츠코
 스즈키 : 미츠이시 켄
 마루오 : 미츠시마 신노스케
 의사 : 코이즈미 쿄코
 시나가와 : 사사노 타카시

스태프 
 원작 : 마에카와 토모히로 〈산책하는 침략자〉
 감독 : 쿠로사와 키요시
 각본 : 다나카 사치코, 구로사와 기요시
 촬영 : 아시자와 아키코
 편집 : 다카하시 고이치
 음악 :  하야시 유스케
 조명 : 나가타 히데노리
 녹음 : 와타나베 신지
 미술 : 아타카 노리후미
 음향 효과 : 시바사키 켄지
 제작 : 나카야마 요시오, 나가야마 마사야, 오오무라 에이지, 오오야나기 히데키, 마츠다 미유키, 사쿠라이 요시키
 총괄 프로듀서 : 카도야 다이스케, 치바 요시노리, 아오키 타케히코
 기획 프로듀서 : 이시다 유우지, 후지무라 나오토
 프로듀서 : 아라카와 유미, 타카시 토모미, 이즈카 노부히로
 보조 프로듀서 : 오타키 료
 조감독 : 키타노 타카시
 제작사 : 장고 필름 
 제작 협력 : 영화 〈산책하는 침략자〉 제작위원회(장고 필름, WOWOW FILMS, 니혼 텔레비젼 방송망, 니카츠, 쇼치쿠, 요미우리 TV 방송, 포니 캐년, 일본 기획 센터, 오피스 사쿠, 히라타 오피스)
 배급 : 쇼치쿠, 니카츠

수상 정보 
 제9회 TAMA 영화상
 최우수 작품상
 최우수 여우주연상 (나가사와 마사미)
 최우수 신진 남우주연상 (타카스기 마히로)

 제72회 마이니치 영화 콩쿠르
 여우주연상 (나가사와 마사미)

 스포니치 그랑프리
 신인상 (타카스기 마히로)

 제72회 도쿄 스포츠 영화 대상
 여우주연상 (나가사와 마사미)

 제91회 키네마 준보 베스트 텐
 일본 영화 베스트 텐 제5위

 제41회 일본 아카데미상
 우수 감독상 (쿠로사와 기요시)
 우수 여우주연상 (나가사와 마사미)

 예술선장문부 과학대신상
 영화부문 (쿠로사와 기요시)

드라마

등장 인물 
 야마기와 에츠코 - 카호
 야마기와 타츠오 - 소메타니 쇼타
 마카베 시로 - 히가시데 마사히로
 나카무라 에리코
 아사카와 미유키 - 키시이 유키노

제작진 
 감독 : 쿠로사와 키요시
 각본 : 타카하시 히로시, 쿠로사와 키요시
 음악 : 하야시 유스케

각주

외부 링크 
영화
  영화 《산책하는 침략자》 공식 웹사이트
  
  
 
텔레비전 드라마
  드라마 《산책하는 침략자》 - WOWOW

일본의 연극
일본의 책
2017년 영화
일본어 영화 작품
구로사와 기요시 감독 영화
일본의 SF 영화
일본의 드라마 영화
연극을 소재로 한 영화
외계생명을 소재로 한 영화
닛폰 TV 제작 영화
닛카쓰 제작 영화
WOWOW 제작 영화
요미우리 TV 제작 영화
포니캐년
쇼치쿠