Among all the films of Akira Kurosawa, "Desire to Live" is my favorite one, and it is also a movie that I have watched many times.
The film seems to have the director throw all the emotion and technique into it, making it a work that is both serious proposition and brilliantly executed.
Roughly speaking, "Desire to Live" is good-looking not only because of this story full of realism and irony, but because it includes four themes:
First: life and death.
Second: the isolation between the two generations of parent and child.
Third: bureaucracy.
Fourth: The conflict between new ideas and old ideas.
life and death:
Many films have tried to explore the relationship between life and death. Life always means hope, and death means the end.
In the film "Desire of Life", the director tried to use Shimura Bridge's life to illustrate the meaning of "birth".
However, no matter how much emphasis is placed on "birth", the ending is still a trace of lamentation, "Isn't this the reality?"
Compared with the meaning of life, I am more willing to believe that Akira Kurosawa is actually here to express how to live in order to die with peace of mind.
Life and death are in fact irreversible and optional, you can only enjoy a period of time in between. And in the background of Beijing like death, the brilliance of life is particularly moving.
Death, in a sense, is not the greatest loss in life. The real loss is that you never lived a good life before death.
Of course, Shimura Bridge also has regrets. Such regrets come from the awkward relationship between the two generations of parents and children.
Isolation between parents and children:
When Shimura Bridge knew that he had cancer and was dying soon, his first thought was to tell his son that he hoped that his son would bear such grief with him.
Unfortunately, the son only considers how to use his father's pension to build a small building to improve his living environment.
In desperation, Shimura Bridge had to give up this idea.
The relationship between Shimurahashi and his son is not a special case, but a confrontation between the loss of patriarchy and the rise of petty familism, which also shows various problems and contradictions in the changes of Japanese society.
The director did not use a very tragic way to arouse the audience's sympathy, but described all kinds of inevitability in a very rational way.
Each era has themes of each era, and the egoism of the younger generation is a product of the era.
The only thing Shimurahashi can do is admit that it is so.
bureaucracy:
Ironic reality is the most important meaning of the film, in this film, the director focuses on irresponsible, inefficient, and strongly selfish government workers.
There is such a scene in the movie. Some citizens who live near the dirty ditch go to the city hall to make a petition, hoping that the relevant personnel will turn the sewage ditch into a park, but the people of the city hall push them to the citizen class and civil engineering class. , Park class... Turn the citizens around.
After Shimurahashi passed away, the assistant mayor and the classroom supervisors came to attend the wake. The self-defense of the assistant mayor and the flattery of the classroom supervisor made this death full of absurdity and nothingness.
It is rare to see such a strong bureaucratic description in a movie, which is also one of the greatest charms of the film "Desire to Live".
Conflict between new and old ideas:
Shimurahashi, who learned that his time was short, met a young girl whose vitality and vigor infected Shimurahashi.
Unlike Shimurahashi's generation, the young girl represents a new era.
At this time, Japan's economy is booming, the older generation is in the stage of handing over power, while the younger generation is slightly confused in the rapidly developing economic life.
On the one hand, there are many problems in post-war Japan that have not been well resolved; on the other hand, the outlook on life of the new generation of young people is still in a confused stage, and they do not have a clear understanding of what they want and what they can get. .
The conflict between new ideas and old ideas often represents the contradiction between the new era and the old one.
Shimurahashi tried to feel all kinds of new times through this young girl, but unfortunately, the time of death is coming.
Among Kurosawa's films, "Desire to Live" is not the most famous one.
Compared with "Rashomon", "Desire of Life" is less philosophical.
Compared with "Seven Samurai", "Desire of Life" is less artistic.
Compared with "Chaos", "Desire to Live" is less stylized.
But this does not prevent "Desire to Live" from becoming a masterpiece in my heart.
All the themes in "Desire to Live" appear in Kurosawa's other films:
Regarding the issue of life and death, the director's views can be clearly understood in movies such as "Seven Samurai", "Red Beard", "Idiot", "I Have No Regrets for Youth".
For the description of kinship, "Records of the Living People" has continued to sublimate this theme, making it a heavier proposition, and has continued to today's Japanese society.
Bureaucracy has appeared in many of Kurosawa's films, such as "Redbeard", "Heaven and Hell", "Sweet Dreams", etc., especially "Sweet Dreams", the director's views on senior bureaucrats and political circles. Mutual collusion and corruption were positively criticized.
In the film "The Desire of Life", you can see all the themes that Kurosawa wants to express. Although some fans feel that the film is too neat, it is undeniable that both the narrative and details of the entire film can be called Perfect.
Akira Kurosawa has never been a so-called art film director, he is a commercial film director, but his works take into account both artistic features and commercial needs.
If you only analyze Kurosawa's films from the artistic level, I am afraid you will be disappointed.
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