Review of Ikiru (1952) by Hoss R — 28 Nov 2011

Couldn't have been done without Takashi Shimura as the protagonist Watanabe. Realizing his death is near and imminent, he tries to find joy in the last few months he has to live. He leaves his day job and tries to truly 'live', but fails to find any sustained happiness.

He confides to a young girl that he finds it very hard to 'live' at all. Shimura delivers a tremendously powerful and emotionally intense performance; completely embodying his character to the extent that he blew me away because it was nothing like I have ever seen before.

Also, there is Shimura's well-known ruminative and perplexed look that serves as a knock-out punch among the arsenal of his craft. Director Akira Kurosawa continued to impress as his career progressed.

He uses a non linear structure to film a very good story. The first 15 and the last 40 minutes of this films are very,very,very good examples of filmmaking and effective story telling. Emotionally moving without being overly sentimental, it's protagonist earns every bit of sympathy and emotion from us.

An optimistic film which is executed just wonderfully by Kurosawa, making it neither sappy nor trite filled with platitudes and peppy little bromides. The film provokes a lot of thought and manages to depict psychological aspects of modern society in a truthful manner.