Ikiru

In the sixties there was a fairly standard American TV series called 'Run for your life' with Ben Gazarra. I enjoyed the concept as a kid - 18 months of foregoing life now has to squashed into 18 months of living due to life threatening condition.

I loved this film. Why? The tension in the first part mirrors humdrum civil service beautifully - even though this is in 50s Japan! Not much has changed - just like for our protagonist

The film has three distinct parts

1. Drudgery and acceptance of everyday bureaucratic work
2. With a limited lifespan, breaking out and experiencing life becomes the order of the day (with even a frisson of sexual attraction?)
   
3. Eulogies do not necessarily reveal that a person was known

We do not follow his deterioration but his awakening -skipping his death, but catching a glimpse of his spirit on the swing! Ikiru, after all, means "to live" Is this a depressing film? - no way! It's uplifting and life affirming [Reviewed by Nuthatch]


I found Ikiru absolutely engrossing, so much so that I forgot at times that I was watching a Japanese film with English subtitles. This was because the universal nature of human experience stood out above the sometimes jarring strangeness of Japanese culture. Although we cannot all relate to the central character's experience as a Japanese bureaucrat, we can all empathise with his fear of death, the pain of his illness, his loneliness, his feeling of being distant from and burdensome to his immediate family and his burning desire to achieve something good before he dies. There is a great satisfaction in knowing that he finished what he set out to do and died a happy man. His actions prompt discussion and debate amongst those who attend his funeral and one senses that his influence will live on after his death and inspire change in others. It is a great story of the little man prevailing against the system. [Reviewed by Nightjar]