Review of Ikiru (1952) by Ben L — 01 Jun 2017

I think anyone could relate to the journey of Kanji Watanabe in Ikiru. Of course we aren't all facing death, but the journey to find purpose and meaning in life is totally relatable. What the movie does well is condense the entire exploration of life's meaning because Watanabe has so little time to figure it out. There are some real heartfelt moments and I could see people getting emotional at times. It didn't quite hit me that deeply, but perhaps if I was in a different mood it would have worked.

Takashi Shimura has a very interesting way of playing the protagonist. He kind of mumbles all the dialogue, and also has a heavy rasp in his voice. That combined with his continuous dour expression makes me wonder why it wasn't obvious to everyone he was about to die. I thought the rest of the cast did a good job, particularly the two companions who help Watanabe through his journey. I just wish his coworkers were established better from the start so I knew them in the end.

Ikiru has a tendency to go to repetitive extremes at times to make its point. There were a number of sequences where I found myself thinking "OK, I get it, can we move on?" But the movie was not interested in moving on that quickly. There's value in it at times (particularly in the early sequence that shows the women getting the runaround about building a park) but I couldn't sense that value every time. It's tough, because I didn't hate the film at all, but it didn't do enough for me to understand why it is so highly praised.