Title: Ikiru
Release Date: October 9, 1952
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Production Company: Toho
Summary/Review:
Ikiru (Japanese for “To Live”) is the story of career civil servant Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura) who works 30 years without missing a day. He’s shaken by the diagnosis that he has stomach cancer and less than a year to live. As a widower who is alienated from his son (Nobuo Kaneko) and daughter-in-law (Kyoko Seki), he finds himself with no one to talk about his impending death.
First, he decides on a night of hedonism with a young novelist (Yūnosuke Itō) he meets at a bar. Finding that life is not for him, he is next drawn to a young former employee, Toyo (Miki Odagiri), hoping to learn the secret of her joie de vivre. Finally, Watanabe decides he must do something significant as his legacy. Through the movie, parents from a poor neighborhood have been shuffled through the bureaucracy as they hope to have a cesspool filled and build a playground upon it. Watanabe makes it his goal in life to guide them through the bureaucracy and see the playground to its completion.
The second part of the film is five months later at Watanabe’s funeral. City officials and Watanabe’s co-workers reflect on his life while arrogantly denying him any agency in building the playground. Later when it’s just his co-workers and family, more stories and flashbacks reveal the truth. The men commit themselves to living more meaningful lives in honor of Watanabe, but in the final scene are shown being unable to live up to that promise.
This movie is absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking with outstanding acting and cinematography. The other Akira Kurosawa films I’ve watched are period pieces, but Ikiru demonstrates he was just as good, even better, at telling a contemporary story. It’s definitely a movie I’d highly recommend that anyone should watch.
Rating: *****
Panorama of the Mountains 