Review of Ikiru (1952) by J J — 26 May 2011

Ikiru - 10/10.

A terminally ill civil worker lives out his last 6 months as a changed man, with a new found urge to live as he realises his life has been wasting away for the past 30 years. In other words, he was a mummy; a corpse. Sitting on the same desk everyday, looking busy but not accomplishing anything of substance. This film really touched a nerve with me although you'd have to be made of stone not to be moved by it. I could especially relate to Watanabe sacrificing his own life for his motherless son, something my dad had to do when my mother passed. One scene that especially moved me was when he requested a song at a bar, and to everyone's surprise he started singing it himself. Similarly, the scene near the end where he was on a swing, singing the same haunting song, was heart wrenching. For the last quarter of the film, after Watanabe has died, we witness his wake as various co-workers discuss his life and piece together what made him change so drastically. Through the scenes at the wake, Kurosawa manages to provide an excellent critique of bureaucracy in post-war Japan but we also get to see how others viewed Watanabe through their rose tinted glasses. A masterpiece, and quite possibly, Kurosawa's best film.