The Japanese are often lauded for their healthy lifestyles and long life-expectancy, which sometimes results in outstanding feats by the country's elderly such as 82-year old nightclub DJs and an 81-year-old woman who taught herself to develop of a smartphone app from scratch. What sometimes gets lost in the wonder of the "youthful elderly" however, is the journey that takes place over such a long life-span.

Fortunately Japanese snack company Glico, probably most famous for being the creator of Japan's popular Pocky sticks, has created an advertisement that celebrates that journey in a way that manages to be heartwarming and heart-wrenching at the same time. The commercial uses a total of 72 different actresses--who all play the same character--to celebrate the rise of the global life-expectancy average to 71.8 years from 31 over the past 100 years. But what makes the commercial truly special is that each actress appears for only a second, and is rotated out by the next to represent exactly one year of the character's life.

As you can see in the video, with each step the protagonist takes through life, she ages ever so slightly into an older version of herself. Each actress is also the exact same age as she portrays in the video, and the transition between each one as the girl experiences all the moments of life's joy and sorrow (each punctuated with enjoying popular Glico products such as Pocky, Papico ice cream, and Bifix yogurt), is seamless. She rises from a child, falls in love, marries, has kids of her own, and eventually reaches the end of her life with a look of satisfaction.

The video's ending caption reads "Food creates your smiles and your health", and along with the rhythmic and painstakingly-shot story progression seems to suggest that the small moments that a fully led life consist of are often enjoyed simply snacking with the ones around us that we love. It's easy to see the commercial, titled "71.8 SECOND LIFE", as pitch to eat more Glico products, but it also serves as a powerful reminder that our lives do pass by in seconds, and the more spend our time with our loved ones (or eating with them), the fuller the end result will be.