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Ikiru
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
Ikiru
Drama / Japanese / 1952
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
In a semi-sarcastic effort to de-plebianize myself, I decided to watch Ikiru after it also popped up in listings for Criterion Collection movies.
I took Zotis's push for Akira Kurosawa as an opportunity to watch Seven Samurai, but I distinctly recall Ikiru on Zotis's favorites list before he took them down. Perhaps this is what he had in mind?
My only impression of this movie is that it's a drama, and I said my favorite part of Seven Samurai was the character interactions, so going all in in that department should be a no-brainer, right?
Well, drama's a hard sell for me. Will Ikiru pull it off? WILL IT BLOW MY FRIGGEN' MIND??? Let's find out.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*I took Zotis's push for Akira Kurosawa as an opportunity to watch Seven Samurai, but I distinctly recall Ikiru on Zotis's favorites list before he took them down. Perhaps this is what he had in mind?
My only impression of this movie is that it's a drama, and I said my favorite part of Seven Samurai was the character interactions, so going all in in that department should be a no-brainer, right?
Well, drama's a hard sell for me. Will Ikiru pull it off? WILL IT BLOW MY FRIGGEN' MIND??? Let's find out.
Ikiru is by no means a bad movie, but unfortunately, I can't help but begin describing it as... a movie that shifts wholly back and forth between powerful moments and heavy-handed emotional drama.
I instantly recognize our samurai master,Takashi Shimura, as our lead and I think, "Hey! I liked him! Glad to see he's our lead this time." before opening narration informs us that he's already dead inside and about to discover that he has stomach cancer.
Following a great montage that takes a "**** yeah!" righteous stab at bureaucracy, our main man, who... I don't even know the name of. Section Chief? His name is Section Chief. Goes to a hospital and in a fairly roundabout way learns he probably has cancer. PROBABLY.
We never get any medical confirmation of that, or at least he doesn't. Seems a bit of a stretch to expect us to buy that he should be so certain he's doomed to die based on something a random stranger says. I think further emphasis on his interpretation of the how the doctors were acting would have telegraphed that information better.
Hell, this same plotbeat was told better in the song, Nightmare to Remember. I say it's better because we at least get the same impression from the perspective of the character. As far as he should know he really does just have an ulcer.
Anyway, he abandons work and rolls through various coping mechanisms. I say "various", but really he does two things:
He hits up a stranger who takes pity on him and takes him out partying and he tries to live vicariously through one of his upbeat employees.
I honestly expected to see more things, but immediately following that we timeskip to after he's died and we're told through LONG expository dialog by ******* bureaucrats at his funeral WHAT HE DID.
Apparently he sought out the problem that was presented to him at the beginning of the movie and decided to fix it, making a park which he dies in for thematic significance.
I REALLY don't think this was the best way to present this story. It rips me out of it to divorce us from the story's continuity at such an odd time only to flash forward and then flash backward, only giving us glimpses of what happened intermixed with a pretty meager attempt to redeem his co-workers, which we're shown doesn't even stick.
Way to depress the hell out of me. Not even the one guy who suddenly sticks up for him out of the blue does anything like quit out of conscience. It's just a very ugly snapshot of bureaucracy.
I agree, bureaucracy is an ugly thing, but is that all this movie was trying to tell me?
You might argue that the story is of this man's significance as someone who breaks the mold.
Alright, I could buy that, but unfortunately I feel the movie stumbles over that in the same way. Also I really can't get over Mr. Takashi's performance.
Make no mistake, we've got some great moments with him, particularly when his son lays into him with cutting accusations of greed and promiscuity, not to mention an inheritance dispute. WOW. WAY TO MAKE ME HATE THAT CHARACTER.
Friggen' nice. The biggest kick here is we never really get to see his son eat that sweet sweet karmic backlash by finding out what he did by snuffing his dad in his moment of weakness, no, for some reason everybody's just out of the loop that he knew he had cancer.
I really don't know how this serves the story. Everybody's ignorance just feels like trampling on a grave.
But honestly, my biggest issue with the movie is this:
It's that overacting again. It's that miserable, hunched, bug-eyed, look of horror on his face at all times that kills me. On top of his silence. He barely says anything most times, leaving people to wonder what's wrong with him and so scenes are just protracted out to a frustrating degree. I really liked the "Life is Brief" scene, but that should have been the climax for that arc in his development.
Isn't the common theme of knowing your doom, fear, followed by resignation? I don't feel like we ever got to that point. At the very least, we weren't able to share it with the character before he was whisked away into history.
I prefer Seven Samurai.
Final Verdict: [Meh...]
I instantly recognize our samurai master,Takashi Shimura, as our lead and I think, "Hey! I liked him! Glad to see he's our lead this time." before opening narration informs us that he's already dead inside and about to discover that he has stomach cancer.
Following a great montage that takes a "**** yeah!" righteous stab at bureaucracy, our main man, who... I don't even know the name of. Section Chief? His name is Section Chief. Goes to a hospital and in a fairly roundabout way learns he probably has cancer. PROBABLY.
We never get any medical confirmation of that, or at least he doesn't. Seems a bit of a stretch to expect us to buy that he should be so certain he's doomed to die based on something a random stranger says. I think further emphasis on his interpretation of the how the doctors were acting would have telegraphed that information better.
Hell, this same plotbeat was told better in the song, Nightmare to Remember. I say it's better because we at least get the same impression from the perspective of the character. As far as he should know he really does just have an ulcer.
Anyway, he abandons work and rolls through various coping mechanisms. I say "various", but really he does two things:
He hits up a stranger who takes pity on him and takes him out partying and he tries to live vicariously through one of his upbeat employees.
I honestly expected to see more things, but immediately following that we timeskip to after he's died and we're told through LONG expository dialog by ******* bureaucrats at his funeral WHAT HE DID.
Apparently he sought out the problem that was presented to him at the beginning of the movie and decided to fix it, making a park which he dies in for thematic significance.
I REALLY don't think this was the best way to present this story. It rips me out of it to divorce us from the story's continuity at such an odd time only to flash forward and then flash backward, only giving us glimpses of what happened intermixed with a pretty meager attempt to redeem his co-workers, which we're shown doesn't even stick.
Way to depress the hell out of me. Not even the one guy who suddenly sticks up for him out of the blue does anything like quit out of conscience. It's just a very ugly snapshot of bureaucracy.
I agree, bureaucracy is an ugly thing, but is that all this movie was trying to tell me?
You might argue that the story is of this man's significance as someone who breaks the mold.
Alright, I could buy that, but unfortunately I feel the movie stumbles over that in the same way. Also I really can't get over Mr. Takashi's performance.
Make no mistake, we've got some great moments with him, particularly when his son lays into him with cutting accusations of greed and promiscuity, not to mention an inheritance dispute. WOW. WAY TO MAKE ME HATE THAT CHARACTER.
Friggen' nice. The biggest kick here is we never really get to see his son eat that sweet sweet karmic backlash by finding out what he did by snuffing his dad in his moment of weakness, no, for some reason everybody's just out of the loop that he knew he had cancer.
I really don't know how this serves the story. Everybody's ignorance just feels like trampling on a grave.
But honestly, my biggest issue with the movie is this:
It's that overacting again. It's that miserable, hunched, bug-eyed, look of horror on his face at all times that kills me. On top of his silence. He barely says anything most times, leaving people to wonder what's wrong with him and so scenes are just protracted out to a frustrating degree. I really liked the "Life is Brief" scene, but that should have been the climax for that arc in his development.
Isn't the common theme of knowing your doom, fear, followed by resignation? I don't feel like we ever got to that point. At the very least, we weren't able to share it with the character before he was whisked away into history.
I prefer Seven Samurai.
Final Verdict: [Meh...]