Before the Sunset (2023)

Kazunori built his life on deadlines, commitments, and business. So much business in fact, he earned the title “God of Management.” Now that he’s alone, in his eighties, he regrets not having stopped to smell the flowers, so to speak. His only happiness now is his volunteer nurse/companion, a twenty year old girl named Asuka. One day, out for a “walk,” they stop at a vantage point and look out at the vast and beautiful scenery. Asuka asks Kazunori about his life, and he reveals his regrets. She asks him to make a wish and she prays to God that it be granted. Suddenly, Kazunori “wakes up” as a twenty-year old young man on a college campus. Now he has his whole life ahead of him. He decides to forge ahead completely differently than he did before, not knowing whether or not destiny exists and if he really can alter the path of his life. “Before the Sunset” seems like a bit of a take on the “Before Sunrise” trilogy by filmmaker Richard Linklater but it does stand on it own and has a decidedly different culture’s take on life, love, repentance, and second thoughts. And so, it makes the viewer think and ask themselves “what if?” “Before the Sunset” is a sweet, romantic, and dramatic film with a likeable cast of characters and good actors.