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Ikiru (1952)Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shin'ichi Himori
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Synopsis: A quiet, older man who works as a bureaucrat in a cramped office, tries to find some meaning to his life after he visits the doctor and learns he has only a short time left to live.
Review: I really was impressed with the first 90 minutes and thought it was beautifully shot, with many potent and poetic scenes. I can see artistry here at work.
The scene where Watanabe (Takashi Shimura) goes to the doctor and another patient literally tells him that he's doomed was maybe one of the most powerful scenes I've seen on film.
Another powerful scene was where Watanabe overhears his son and daughter in-law talking about getting him to sign over his pension, which breaks his heart...a very powerful scene indeed. The scene with the younger girl and how see finally reacts to him was deeply reflective of the emotions in play.
The actor who played Watanabe and the actress who played the girl were both excellent. They could really pack emotion into a facial expression.
But the film lost me on some degree, when he dies at the 90 minute mark of the film. That felt like the emotional end of the tale and I didn't connect to what functions as a epilogue in the last 50 minutes (the scenes at the wake and the flashback sequences). That part was well done too but almost felt like another movie.
Overall I liked the insight the film gives into attitudes of the Japanese in the mid 1950s. You could see that the occupation of Japan had really westernized them, with their dance clubs with American style dancing and music. Also interesting was the married couple wanting an American style house because the Japanese houses were too cold.
Ikiru (1952)
Cast: Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shin'ichi Himori
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Synopsis: A quiet, older man who works as a bureaucrat in a cramped office, tries to find some meaning to his life after he visits the doctor and learns he has only a short time left to live.
Review: I really was impressed with the first 90 minutes and thought it was beautifully shot, with many potent and poetic scenes. I can see artistry here at work.
The scene where Watanabe (Takashi Shimura) goes to the doctor and another patient literally tells him that he's doomed was maybe one of the most powerful scenes I've seen on film.
Another powerful scene was where Watanabe overhears his son and daughter in-law talking about getting him to sign over his pension, which breaks his heart...a very powerful scene indeed. The scene with the younger girl and how see finally reacts to him was deeply reflective of the emotions in play.
The actor who played Watanabe and the actress who played the girl were both excellent. They could really pack emotion into a facial expression.
But the film lost me on some degree, when he dies at the 90 minute mark of the film. That felt like the emotional end of the tale and I didn't connect to what functions as a epilogue in the last 50 minutes (the scenes at the wake and the flashback sequences). That part was well done too but almost felt like another movie.
Overall I liked the insight the film gives into attitudes of the Japanese in the mid 1950s. You could see that the occupation of Japan had really westernized them, with their dance clubs with American style dancing and music. Also interesting was the married couple wanting an American style house because the Japanese houses were too cold.