kai sholmes blog

Ikiru (1952) Review

Reading time: 2m

The 1952 film Ikiru, directed by Akira Kurosawa, narrates a story of an old man on the verge of death, exploring the concept of living through himself and the people that he interacts with in his life. Akira Kurosawa is a Japanese director famous for films such as Seven Samurai (1954), Yojimbo (1961), and many more, often regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. The story of Ikiru begins with the old man, Kanji Watanabe, finding out that he would die from cancer in a mere few months' time. Though he was briefly in despair after learning the news, he quickly decided that he was going to live out his life doing things that he never had the chance to. After doing various activities in attempts to fulfill himself—such as going to bars despite his stomach failing, and making friends with a young coworker—he eventually learned that what he needed was something more profound yet much simpler: to make a difference in the world, no matter how big or small. Through this journey, the character of Kanji Watanabe is shown through his son Mitsuo, the young woman Toyo, and his coworkers.

I did not expect to start crying just twenty minutes into the movie...what fascinates me about Kurosawa is how he perfectly conveys the darks and lights of humanity, no matter if his movies are about a samurai, a detective, a murder trial, or just some old man, the essence of the story will always be the moral conflict that we and the characters experience. This movie was touching to me in many ways. His relationship with his son is tragic but true to many parents and children. It is no fault of him nor his son that they do not understand each other. The son does not understand the dedication his father has for him, and Watanabe did not understand that he did not have to waste his life away for somebody else. When the parent and child don't understand each other, the old widower easily becomes all alone. Even if he is in the presence of his son, daughter in law, or his coworkers, nobody understands his world, not even himself. Though as he learned and started accepting the fact that he is going to die soon, through the people he met who gave him a glimpse of what it is like to really live, he decided that that's what he was going to do. Through the later half of the movie all the way to the end, this movie shows how it is ultimately about how we live through the little impacts that we have on other people. Though death is inevitable, people are going to live in a world that exists with something we've made, whether they recognize it or not.

In essence, the character of Kanji Watanabe demonstrates the unfulfilling life of old Japanese bureaucracy, and that the cure to this monotony is done through experiencing more of the world.