Ikiru didn't make my ballot, but I like it quite a lot. I don't have a formal review of it per se, but here's what I wrote on it for the last countdown we did on this forum:
I've seen several of Kurosawa's films. I gave Ikiru a 7/10 and I prefer his other films, but I still like it quite a lot. I hated the opening 10 or 15 minutes which I'm convinced is the exact opposite of show, don't tell. However, I think the film shows subtlety in other places to make up for its weak takeoff. For example, I'm not sure how noble Kurosawa wants Mr. Watanabe to be. He's a person who spent most of his life being cold and distant and didn't decide to change until really late in his life when he was diagnosed with cancer. If it wasn't for that, he may have still been his old self for all we know. Plus, when it comes to the method he adopted when attempting to achieve redemption, it involved him getting in the face and acting rather creepy towards one of his female subordinates in a restaurant and, after a long absence from work, pushing for the design of a playground at his workplace in spite of his co-workers warning him he may intrude on other departments. Given this, it's clear he was achieving redemption in a reckless way. Also, much can be said about the second half. Naturally, this would be the segment where most of the sentimentality would come into play. By telling it mostly in flashbacks though and focusing on the ignoble behaviors of his co-workers, this prevented many scenes from being sentimental and it maintained the feel of what came beforehand (but of course, it could be argued that there still are some sentimental moments in that segment). While there certainly are places where the film feels really obvious, I also think there's a lot of subtlety in there as well.
As for Andrei Rublev, it was #7 on my ballot. Here's a pretty lengthy analysis I wrote on it a while ago.
Updated ballot:
1.
2. Late Spring (1949, Ozu) #26
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. Andrei Rublev (1966, Tarkovsky) #23
8.
9.
10. Le Samouraï (1967, Melville) #30
11.
12. Sansho the Bailiff (1954, Mizoguchi) #50
13.
14.
15.
16. The Battle of Algiers (1966, Pontecorvo) #56
17.
18.
19. The Mirror (1975, Tarkovsky) #86
20.
21. Red Desert (1964, Antonioni) #64
22.
23. Vampyr (1932, Dreyer) #84
24.
25.
I've seen several of Kurosawa's films. I gave Ikiru a 7/10 and I prefer his other films, but I still like it quite a lot. I hated the opening 10 or 15 minutes which I'm convinced is the exact opposite of show, don't tell. However, I think the film shows subtlety in other places to make up for its weak takeoff. For example, I'm not sure how noble Kurosawa wants Mr. Watanabe to be. He's a person who spent most of his life being cold and distant and didn't decide to change until really late in his life when he was diagnosed with cancer. If it wasn't for that, he may have still been his old self for all we know. Plus, when it comes to the method he adopted when attempting to achieve redemption, it involved him getting in the face and acting rather creepy towards one of his female subordinates in a restaurant and, after a long absence from work, pushing for the design of a playground at his workplace in spite of his co-workers warning him he may intrude on other departments. Given this, it's clear he was achieving redemption in a reckless way. Also, much can be said about the second half. Naturally, this would be the segment where most of the sentimentality would come into play. By telling it mostly in flashbacks though and focusing on the ignoble behaviors of his co-workers, this prevented many scenes from being sentimental and it maintained the feel of what came beforehand (but of course, it could be argued that there still are some sentimental moments in that segment). While there certainly are places where the film feels really obvious, I also think there's a lot of subtlety in there as well.
As for Andrei Rublev, it was #7 on my ballot. Here's a pretty lengthy analysis I wrote on it a while ago.
Updated ballot:
1.
2. Late Spring (1949, Ozu) #26
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. Andrei Rublev (1966, Tarkovsky) #23
8.
9.
10. Le Samouraï (1967, Melville) #30
11.
12. Sansho the Bailiff (1954, Mizoguchi) #50
13.
14.
15.
16. The Battle of Algiers (1966, Pontecorvo) #56
17.
18.
19. The Mirror (1975, Tarkovsky) #86
20.
21. Red Desert (1964, Antonioni) #64
22.
23. Vampyr (1932, Dreyer) #84
24.
25.