Comment

Ikiru

To live
Jul 04, 2011joelinMagnolia rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This is the greatest film ever made. The story deals with the most basic issue any person encounters on Earth: how to live one's life. It focuses on one Japanese man of average intellect and abilities who has been for many years just ''going through the motions'', doing what was expected of him, staying busy but not accomplishing anything, not really interacting or connecting with people - co-workers, friends, or family. As a speaker he is not very articulate. Really, he is rather boring. That is, until he learns (in the most indirect, uncomfortable and humiliating way) that he has cancer and only has months to live. How he reacts to this horrible news, how he comes to terms with it, how it affects the people around him, the changes he makes in his life, what he does with his remaining time on Earth, and how the people around him come to understand what he did and why (since, for the most part, he did not tell anyone of his affliction) makes up the body of the film. The structure of the film was unique for its time. Similarly with ''Citizen Kane'', its techniques have been appropriated and imitated over the years. Certain editing techniques were ahead of its time. Its use of sound, and the lack of sound, is surprising yet appropriate. The use of a real song from 1915 in four different arrangements (during the title credits, in the dance hall, in the park, and in the final scene of the film) binds the whole film and gives it a huge impact. When this film was first released in 1952, it addressed the very current situation Japan was in. The U.S. had just lifted some censorship bans, so this film is one of the first to criticize the cultural impact of the American presence in Japanese society. No American appears it the film, but American tastes and presence can be felt throughout it. Seen now, it has the patina of a period piece, yet the story remains modern and relevant. It's a blast from the past. It's like a parable of Jesus from the Gospel according to St. Luke where, at the end of it, when the listener of the parable demonstrates that he gets the point, you expect the Jesus response, ''Go and do likewise.'' This is the only starring role of Takashi Shimura, a Toho Studios contract player and a steady character actor (he was in the original Gojiro movie - ''Godzilla'' to us Americans). While he received top billing in Kurosawa's next film ''The Seven Samurai'', ''Ikiru'' is his film alone. He makes the most of this role. You believe the suffering he undergoes. (If you see ''The Seven Samurai'' after this one, you may have a hard time recognizing the leader of the band of samurais as the same actor. That's how good Takashi Shimura was.) The other actors are very good, even those whose first film this was, like Miki Odagiri. This film by Akira Kurosawa is not perfect. It has lots of flaws - from a technical standpoint and from other aspects. It is a sentimental piece. But its understanding of the human condition, its portrayal of the most basic human need: to make a difference in the world, and its grounding in the real world make it the greatest movie out of all the world-wide releases I have ever seen. There has been talk of an American remake of this film for years. There was a Japanese TV remake of it in 2007. In 2022, a British remake, shorter in run time, titled "Living", was released. This is the original. This film is meant for adults, due to language, though I wonder if the English subtitles of the Japanese provide an accurate translation. For a contrary opinion, check out the eloquent yet tangential comments from 1962 of Manny Farber, who saddled this film with the label of "termite art", indeed determined it was its progenitor ("giveaway landmark"), as well as dumped upon it the weight of all the faults he found with movies made since the release of "Ikiru", especially the offerings from the French New Wave, and what he declared as the "decline of the actor."