Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1952, S)
If the initial reviews for films like Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck, and Niki Caro's North Country are any indication, it appears as if this year's Oscar race will be contested by a slate of left-friendly films with not-so-subtle political themes. I hope to see most, if not all, of these films, to glean whatever artistic value may be in them, but will probably be forced to hold back my gag reflex throughout most of them. Very few of our best modern filmmakers, perhaps with the exception of Mel Gibson, have expressed a conservative philosophy in their work (and to call The Passion a "conservative" film is stretching things).
There was a time, however, when directors made great films touching on politics that didn't always take the far-left tact. No film is more appropriate in this vein right now than Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru, a classic we'd do well to watch again in these times of massive pork-barrel spending and Alaskan bridges to nowhere. Ikiru centers around Watanabe-san, a lifelong bureaucrat who finds himself stricken with a stomach cancer that will take his life in six months. Despite having been well compensated for his work, he becomes deeply depressed. He tries to drink it off with a personal Themistocles and throw himself into a relationship with a young coworker to make himself happy again, to no avail. Finally, inspired by the girl, he makes the best decision of his entire adult life by deciding to make a lasting contribution in his final months.
As with all of Kurosawa's films, Ikiru has the right look to it, from the office where Watanabe-san works (visually busy, with seemingly endless amounts of useless stuff stacked to the ceiling--an outward metaphor for how useless the office is in reality) to the red-light district of this unidentified Japanese city to the haunting yet reassuring shot of a dying Watanabe-san sitting on a swing in the park that was the greatest work of his life. The old African spiritual "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" came to mind as I watched Watanabe-san's mannerisms on the swing, and indeed, no film better illustrates how our work, no manner how seemingly menial, can be salvific.
Article comments
1 - word2yamama
Why don't you and your gag-reflex just stay home and stay there with your blinds fimly drawn?
God forbid you would actually see a movie that would make you re-examine your socio-political tablets of stone.
2 - ss
If you liked Ikiru you should check out
Dersu Uzala.
3 - Temple A. Stark
This post was chosen by the section editor as a BC pick of the week. Go HERE (link) to find out why.
And thank you
- Temple
4 - chuck despres
I first saw IKIRU when I was 12; now I am 60.
It inspired me to become a TAOIST EXISTENTIALIST and POLITICAL ACTIVIST.
I can still remember the tune that Watanabe-san hums to himself at movie's end.