Ikiru (Living)

Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura) works as a bureaucrat in Tokyo City Hall, and in over thirty years has never taken the day off. Every aspect of his life is set to autopilot, where the bare minimum of effort shall suffice. However the revelation of terminal cancer will prompt him to finally look at things in retrospect. After becoming even more morose and turning to drink, the vitality of a young female co-worker convinces him that something meaningful must be achieved before death. He devotes all effort towards a rather unexceptional children’s playground, hoping that his position within the council will help grant planning permission. Shunned at every turn, it is only through sheer desperation that he can realize his dream, only to met by confusion in a world too busy to care.

The title is translated as 'to live’, and the enduring appeal of the film probably lies within the final third of the film. This takes place after the protagonist’s death, where several male acquaintances of the deceased are gathered. After much discussion the men gradually comprehend the actions of Watanabe-san, which encourages them to live a more fulfilling existence. This leads to a life-affirming ending of analeptic proportions, considering the sorrowful two hours of masterful cinema that precedes it.

Sandwiched between samurai classics Rashomon and The Seven Samurai, two projects that catapulted Kurosawa to the forefront of world cinema, this atypical non-period piece is often considered the director’s greatest achievement. The title translates as 'to live', and perhaps only a great humanist director could have kept this film far from the reaches of cloying sentiment. This can also be attributed to the most breathtaking performance from lead actor Shimura, whose twenty-two collaborations with Kurosawa eclipses the figure of even Toshiro Mifune.

Review by Chay Williamson
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2007

Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura) is a civil servant in a State bureaucratic organisation. Suddenly he learns from the doctor that he's got cancer and that he only has a few months to live. Watanabe then passes through a process of reconciliation with the idea of death being brought often to the verge of despair. After finding short refuge in all of the things he was deprived of during his routine life he falls in serene solitude after his ultimate attempt to give his life true meaning...

This is one of Kurosawa's few contemporary dramas, others being And the Bad Sleep Well and Drunken Angel, and undoubtedly his best. As is always the case with Kurosawa there are here acute humanistic elements although this time they operate at a move covert level rendering Ikiru immune to the didactic style which characterize some of his films. Kurosawa depicts superbly the dry, bureaucratic and alienated society which surrounds Watanabe and which enhances his desperation but also his impetus to transcend the fear of death by rendering as the ultimate goal of his life the building of a children's playground. There are many scenes where Kurosawa's genius manifests itself in the film. Most notably one should stress the scene with Watanabe feeling spiritually "empty" after having drank and danced all night. the scene after his funeral - which we see in flashback - with his friends recalling Watanabe's last moments, but above all the final elegaic moment showing Watanabe having accomplished his mission, sitting on a child's swing contemplating, as the snow falls, his awaited death.

Takashi Shimura delivers a stunning performance - being registered as a "classic" in all cinema - as the insignificant civil servant who comes face to face with his fate, Asakazu Nakai photographs in beautiful monoclrrome the gloomy atmosphere of the city but it's ultimately Kurosawa's directorial skill that makes Ikiru one of the moss moving films of all time!

Review by Spiros Gangas
Taken from EUFS Programme 1993-94