Death is inevitable. We all know this at some level once we become aware of mortality but it is an unknown. A known unknown[1], but what if it were known? Would we act differently? Of course we would[2] but how would we change?
Ikiru is the story of a man, Kanji Watanabe, masterfully played by Takashi Shimura, who has worked hard in a standard job in local government, doing all the things that he should have done and become a respectable, upstanding citizen. But what, he asks, has that actually achieved - or what will it achieve? His job isn't to achieve things, it is to keep going (I assume most people have some experience of jobs that seem not to do anything worthwhile) and that is the purpose of so many jobs. When diagnosed with cancer, he realises that he has not been "living" for some time already. And so what does he do? What would you do?
Ikiru is the story of a man, Kanji Watanabe, masterfully played by Takashi Shimura, who has worked hard in a standard job in local government, doing all the things that he should have done and become a respectable, upstanding citizen. But what, he asks, has that actually achieved - or what will it achieve? His job isn't to achieve things, it is to keep going (I assume most people have some experience of jobs that seem not to do anything worthwhile) and that is the purpose of so many jobs. When diagnosed with cancer, he realises that he has not been "living" for some time already. And so what does he do? What would you do?
The classic response is to drink and lose yourself in merriment which Kanji does in a local night time district. But, after some time, this joy is as empty a joy as the boredom of his work was. One thing he doesn't do, pointedly, is tell anyone, such as colleagues and family about his medical situation - including his own son. Watanabe lives with his son and daughter-in-law and they also have quite a frosty relationship with him. He seems to have no major friends at work either to confide in - he was already the owner of the rather unhappy nickname of "The Corpse" anyway. So he decides that, until he dies, he will live with a purpose - a purpose to keep him living. A purpose to start living. Eventually within the film, Watanabe finds something to focus on - the creation of a children's playground, something to keep himself going and then he dies[3]
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The "then he dies" is shown by the fact that you are then at Watanabe's wake and the rest of the film, which feels like about half of the film, is told from the perspective of other people which I think is an interesting way of approaching this. Those people all seem to have different views on those last few months and they have conflicting views on him from it.
I think Ikiru may be my favourite Akira Kurosawa film, which, with his CV, is pretty high praise. The nature of the film is relatively simple but the way of telling it enlivens the film considerably. Rashomon, which is a little more famous, has a nice way of dealing with how perspectives change the "facts" of an incident and here there is a similar aspect. Watanabe's death was a surprise to all of those at his wake and so people did not suddenly treat him differently as he became ill. His strange divergence from character was not necessarily seen as a forewarning for his death (and this may now be quite standard as a "mid-life crisis" but I am not sure that this phenomenon really existed in the 50's). I find it intriguing that he would not tell his son for, basically, an instant boost to his relationship with him. This may be, from his own perspective, be the punishment that he deserved for his dereliction over years as a father. There is something quite honourable about facing your punishment "like a man" and dealing with the consequences and not taking the easy route out and I guess this stoicism was seen as a large positive for a character. I am also kind of interested about the idea of someone doing good works[4] that are not recognised at the time and only receive recognition posthumously. But we don't all need to have cancer to do good things, maybe we all need to find our own playground to build.
I would really recommend the film to everyone. Of course, for many, there are the issues of both being black and white and foreign language which may be two stumbling blocks too many for a lot of people. If you can get over those, this is a great film and if you can watch it, you really should.
I think Ikiru may be my favourite Akira Kurosawa film, which, with his CV, is pretty high praise. The nature of the film is relatively simple but the way of telling it enlivens the film considerably. Rashomon, which is a little more famous, has a nice way of dealing with how perspectives change the "facts" of an incident and here there is a similar aspect. Watanabe's death was a surprise to all of those at his wake and so people did not suddenly treat him differently as he became ill. His strange divergence from character was not necessarily seen as a forewarning for his death (and this may now be quite standard as a "mid-life crisis" but I am not sure that this phenomenon really existed in the 50's). I find it intriguing that he would not tell his son for, basically, an instant boost to his relationship with him. This may be, from his own perspective, be the punishment that he deserved for his dereliction over years as a father. There is something quite honourable about facing your punishment "like a man" and dealing with the consequences and not taking the easy route out and I guess this stoicism was seen as a large positive for a character. I am also kind of interested about the idea of someone doing good works[4] that are not recognised at the time and only receive recognition posthumously. But we don't all need to have cancer to do good things, maybe we all need to find our own playground to build.
I would really recommend the film to everyone. Of course, for many, there are the issues of both being black and white and foreign language which may be two stumbling blocks too many for a lot of people. If you can get over those, this is a great film and if you can watch it, you really should.
1. Rumsfeld's Knowns and Unknowns: The Intellectual History of a Quip.
2. I listened to an interesting LSE lecture entitiled "After your death" recently about how we would react if we knew when we died, that everyone else in the world would too. It is here.
3. This is so Japanese in storytelling style! It is as sudden as in the text though.
4. This is rather like the opposite of the end of The Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3, one of my favourite videogames that I have been playing recently, someone who was truly destroyed after death.
