Ikiru - Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film

Country: japan

Year: 1952

Running time: 143

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044741/reference

Michael says: “I’m on a bit of a movie binge, partly due to the Brattle Theatre’s most excellent podcast, which I should have started listening to over a year ago. But it is inspiring me to catch up on a wide array of films that I’ve never just gotten around to seeing. Recently I dove into Akira Kurosawa’s IKIRU. I’m a fan of Kurosawa’s; RASHOMON is one of my all-time favorite films, but I haven’t seen a whole lot of them, and IKIRU is often exalted as one of his best. The praise is definitely well-deserved. It’s a simple story about Kanji, an aging man in a bureaucratic job in City Hall, whose wife has died, and who allows his job to consume him. He lives with his son’s family, but their relationship is strained. At a doctor’s visit, Kanji learns that he has terminal stomach cancer and probably has less than a year to live. He stops coming to work, and has a brief phase where he is consumed with brief and bitterness, before meeting a man in a bar one night who takes him out on the town. Kanji realizes that he has neglected his own life over the years, and when he bumps into a former co-worker, a young woman who needs his official ‘stamp’ of approval so she can resign, he becomes enamored of her free-spirited love of life. Through their interactions, Kanji finds his purpose, and a way to fulfill himself for what time he has left.

“Kurosawa, who wrote the film with his frequent writing partners Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni, turns his crucial lens on bureaucratic Tokyo government in 1952 — not long after the end of World War II. In the first half of the film, we follow Kanji until he comes to his realization, then the film jumps forward in time and we are at Kanji’s wake, where his co-workers and family think back on the months leading to this moment, and the drastic change in his outlook. It’s a clever and compelling storytelling device the lets us get to know the man, then see how other saw him. A frequent collaborator of Kurosawa’s, Takashi Shimura is riveting as Kanji. His expressive face, and that voice that sounds like every word takes Herculean effort as if he’d spent decades without speaking paint such a detailed picture of this man worn down by the lack of drive and apathy within and around him. The imagery Kurosawa offers masterfully supports the story that plays out to a strong and satisfying conclusion. 5 cats“

Ikiru

Leave a Reply Cancel reply