desire to live

Elza 2022-03-24 09:02:11

"The greed to enjoy life is a virtue." Watanabe told Oda that he had stomach cancer and would die soon. The scene is a good shot. In the near side of the camera is Watanabe's painful remarks, and in the distance is a group of girls happy birthday party . One is about death and the other is about life. When Watanabe knew what he wanted to do and walked down the stairs, the song happy birthday to you sounded, and Watanabe was reborn.
How did Watanabe help fill up the stinky pond near the community and build a small park on it, Kurosawa Akira did not directly express it in a direct way, but first through Watanabe's funeral to show the ugly face of city officials, and then Through the mouths of everyone, all questions and details are solved in the form of flashbacks. One negative and one positive, the contrast is sharp, which deepens Watanabe's new life at the last moment of his life and the transcendence of his personality.
The last 50 minutes of everyone's flashback to Watanabe is the most exciting and climax of the whole film, which reminds me of "Twelve Angry Men" directed by Lumet five years later.
To show the propositions of "family", "society", "life and death" in one movie, and show it so well, Kurosawa is indeed powerful enough, he is a genius of the movie!
What is life for? 64 years ago, Akira Kurosawa gave us a good answer.

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Extended Reading
  • Ambrose 2022-03-29 09:01:03

    No matter how sound the system is, if it does not have the enthusiasm and passion of people, it will become a net of things, making everything "can" become "cannot", and individuals and society will be reduced to "mummies". We may die at any time. "No one knows what will happen tomorrow." Those empty, terrifying eyes turn into happy swings, and Kurosawa confronts the essence of life within the bureaucracy by writing "Citizen Kane" backwards.

  • Julia 2022-04-24 07:01:14

    The scene of swinging on the swing is rather terrifying.

Ikiru quotes

  • Toyo: [telling joke] "You've never had a day off, have you?" "No." "Why? Are you indispensable?" "No. I don't want them to find out they can do without me."

  • Kanji: Now I remember: I nearly drowned in a pond once when I was a child. I felt exactly the same way then. Everything's going black. I writhe and thrash around, but there's nothing to hold on to - except you.

    Toyo: What about your son?

    Kanji: Don't talk to me about him! I have no son. I'm all alone.

    Toyo: But...

    Kanji: No, you don't understand! My son is somewhere far away. Just as my mom and pop were when I was drowning in that pond. Remembering it now, it's even more painful than it was then.