Week 9, 2015
Joensuu, Finland
Title: Ikiru
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Genre: Drama
Year: 1952
Country: Japan
IMDb: 8.3/10
Thesis: the meaning of life.
Watch on 28.2.2015
A bureaucratic worker in Japan whose name is Kanji Watanabe discovers he has cancer and only few months left of life. He is shocked with the news, but he has no-one to talk about it. His wife is dead and, apparently, his son and daughter-in-law only care about his money. After knowing he is dying, Watanabe attempts to find a meaning of his life, acknowledging that he has not been living it and now he has not time left.
In his search of meaning, he meets in a bar an eccentric novelist. With him Watanabe explores the night life in Tokio. However, this mundane activities does not make him feel better. Later, he interacts with a subordinate, who is full of life. It is while interacting with her, when she tells him that he should find his purpose in life. In this dinner with his subordinate, the last one he has with her, Watanabe realizes that might not be too late for him to accomplish something valuable before his life ends. He remember a stagnant project, due to bureaucracy, to transform a mosquito infested city area into a children’s playground. Watanabe works hard to achieve the creation of this park and the night before its inauguration he dies. In his funeral, the story unfolds to understand if Watanabe knew about his sickness or not.
Watanabe – Film Ikiru – Photo source
Personally, the film is a jewel. The story and how the film is shoot helps you to immerse in the situation. The actor Watanabe, Takashi Shimura, does a wonderful work showing pain and despair. He acts so well the living without living.
Even that the narrative of the film takes place in Japan during the 50s. I attempt to say the message and even some of the bureaucracy life style events in the movie are current, even 63 years later. Therefore, the film is a current one, perhaps filmed with “old” technology.
For those who do not like “slow” films, this movie might be difficult. However its tempo, in my opinion, immerse you in the narrative and its message. The film invites you to think, across different scenes, about the meaning for life offering distinctive messages, for example:
- life is brief
(this sentence is from the song Gondola no Uta which was written in 1915 and it is a central song in the film) - I can’t afford to hate anyone. I don’t have that kind of time.
Ikiro is a film, which I highly recommend to watch. If you want to look at it online, at the Dailymotion, you can find it: