Review of Ikiru (1952) by Steve M — 02 Apr 2011

This is, in my opinion, Akira Kurosawa's most over-rated film. It has good things to say, but it seems like it's not sure how to say them. On one end, this is the story of a man who's done very little with his life, and now finds he's going to die; on the other, we have a critique of the bureaucracy in government offices.

While both ideas are connected, they really only connect in the film at the beginning. Then we follow watanabe trying to live, and then trying to make something, anything to feel he has accomplished something.

I feel like it was a mistake to cut ahead to his funeral the moment he decided to do something. If the film hadn't spent so long addressing his learning to live, it would have felt natural, but as is, this method of story-telling felt disjointed, almost like two separate movies connected loosely at the waist.