Review of Ikiru (1952) by Kyle V — 01 Mar 2008
Ikiru and the Seventh Seal are, in a way the same idea put into effect to totally different ways. They both involve a human being finding out that death is coming for them soon. They both involve the character searching for a meaning to their life. They both involve the character changing their lives around and trying to create some kind of meaning for their life. In The Seventh Seal, Antonious creates a meaning for his life by distracting death long enough to allow the family of three to escape. That is justification enough for the knight to have at least some sort of gratification of life.
In Ikiru it goes an entirely different route. I don't want to spoil the movie totally cause that would be quite mean but..... they both go hand in hand. Death only has a physical form in The Seventh Seal but in Ikiru, come sin the form of a cancer.
Beautiful film. Not up to par as Kurosawa's later work but it is definately a personal film and established Kurosawa as the best of all the auteur directors.
This review of Ikiru (1952) was written by Kyle V on 01 Mar 2008.
Ikiru has generally received very positive reviews.
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