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jeff_v [ 7.5 ]
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A terrific performance by Takashi Shimura anchors this contemplative film from Akira Kurosawa. Life must have passion, or else one is merely the walking dead, and Shimura's Mr. Watanabe realizes this only after he has been diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer. The last forty-five minutes are repetitive and take the long way around to make a simple point, but there are some unforgettable images along the way, including one of Mr. Watanabe on a swingset, as it begins to snow.
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Franc28 [ 9.0 ]
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Ikiru - "to live" - is the story of Kanji Watanabe, an office worker who finds out he has only six months to live because of a stomach cancer. After learning this, he is overtaken with depression because his family has grown distant with him, and he cannot confide in anyone. But impromptu meetings with a poet, and then a young former co-worker, will provide him with the life lessons and impetus necessary to seek his own happiness.
Ikiru, by Akira Kurosawa, is a movie which seeks to circumscribe an answer to the meaning of life and death. Kurosawa's piercing gaze observes that family, hedonism and living through other people, are all either social constructs or dead-ends. In the end, the only way to be accomplished is on our own terms and for something that has meaning to the individual.
It is hard to imagine that Takashi Shuimura, who is the leader of the samurai in Seven Samurai, portrays an ill and purposeless man here. While in that other movie he portrays a leader, here he portrays a man of rare intensity and despair. The supporting cast is also excellent. The cinematography, as one would expect from a Kurosawa, is subtle and rich.
I did not, however, love this movie. The last third is extremely clunky and, while it is obviously meant to discuss the meaning of death, more exactly Watanabe's death, lingers on for a lot longer than necessary. This detracts from an otherwise wonderful movie.
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| Weighted Rating | : 7.7 |
| No. Ratings | : 12 | |
| No. Reviews | : 8 | |
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