SPOILER ALERT
Click here for my previous review of the Third Man
Number 100 on the
top 1000 films of all time is Akira Kurosawa's 1952 Ikiru.
Ikiru (translated as "To Live) follows the story of Kanji Watanabe. Watanabe is a middle-aged civil servant who has been stuck in the same dead-end job for thirty years. His wife is dead and his son and daughter-in-law have little time for him and even less respect. When Watanabe is diagnosed with stomach cancer and told he only has 6 months to live, he vows to live his life to his full potential.
Although Ikiru, at times, is tedious, confusing and difficult to follow, it is meaningful, poignant and touching. It is also a very dreary film, particularly a scene where Kanji sings Gondola no Uta in possibly one of the most depressing parts of a film that I have watched.
Despite being released in 1952 and being partially inspired by Leo Tolstoy's 1886 novella
The Death of Ivan Illyich, it is as relevant now as it is then. Watanabe works as a bureaucrat in city planning where he performs the same monotonous tasks day after day. He has no passion in his life or anything to live for. This idea isn't too dissimilar to modern-day office day workers stuck in menial positions who lack any form of excitement in their lives. However, after being diagnosed with cancer, Watanabe decides to do something about the problem.
Firstly, he meets an eccentric writer and the two of them frequent bars and stripclubs in a hedonistic and futile way to find meaning. However, Watanabe soon finds this isn't the right scenario for him and I'm glad that
Ikiru tackled this issue. There's a definite conception that clubbing, drinking and doing drugs are the best ways to live your life to the maximum, and whilst it might work for some people, it certainly isn't universal. It doesn't work for Watanabe who, the following day, soon encounters one of his female subordinates, Toyo, who has just resigned from her previous job. Watanabe becomes attracted to her zest for life and keeps finding excuses for the two of them to spend time together.
Toyo eventually tires of him and confronts him of his true intentions, which is where Watanabe asks her what the secret is to loving wife. She confesses that she doesn't know, but reveals her new job, making children's toys, has given her purpose in life. Watanabe, inspired by how she gains happiness by helping others, decides to return to his bureaucratic job to push for a new children's playground. Although you could argue this is cheesy and sentimental, I think that
Ikiru did well to touch upon this idea. Sometimes the best way to find happiness in your own life is to bring happiness to others.
If
Ikiru falls down anywhere, I think it would be in its final act, which cross-cuts between flashbacks and the present-day narrative. The present-day narrative sees Watanabe dying from his cancer and his former co-workers gathering together to commemorate him at his wake. Killing off your protagonist is a brave move for any film, especially halfway through the film, and sometimes it does work, but I don't think it did here. Although we see Watanabe in flashbacks battling to have this playground created, his presence is lacking dearly in the present-day scene. This is a character that we've empathised and sympathised with for the past 90 mins and for him to have died so suddenly was quite jarring for me as the viewer.
There was no longer a particular character for me to focus upon, as Watanabe's co-workers discussed amongst themselves what made Watanabe so passionate about creating this playground. The co-workers then decide to live their lives with the same passion that Watanabe displayed in the last months of his life, but fail to do so, once they have returned to their old jobs. This was a nice note to end the film on. Saying you'll live your life differently is one thing, actually doing it is a whole other thing entirely.
Click below for my reviews of Akira Kurosawa's other films:
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