’’The importance of what we have is realised most when we loose it’’
Anonymous.
Ikiru
Ikiru means ’To live’ in English. It is the story of Kanji Watanabe, a lonely, bureaucrat who works for a government organisation. Watanbe is in a decent position at his office, earns a decent salary has a home to live in and has a son who is married. But all these things never kept him happy. The endless hours he spends at the routine job are unfulfilling. But he doesn’t know it. He never does any thinking about why his life is so dull. Like a dead fish which flows along the stream he keeps moving aimlessly with the stream of time. But there comes a moment in his life where he discovers the true essence of life and thats when he decides TO LIVE.In short this is the main story of Ikiru.
Ikiru is in two parts. The two parts can be independently watched as two differnt films. The first part of the movie starts with the opening shot of an X-ray revealing Watanbe’s stomach and the cancer with which it is affected.But only the viewers are aware of that information. Watanbe comes to know of it after few minutes of narration which describes his life. The movie is slow paced till the point Watanbe discovers about his health condition and the movie picks up pace when Watanbe starts discovering life as it should be.His journey to discover the purpose of his life happens through various events and chance meetings with new people. The first part of the movies closes with the discovery of the true essence of being alive and that’s when Wantanbe is reborn as a person.
The second part deals the life of Wantanbe after his death. It is probably the longest sequence in the history of Cinema. The scene is set at the death ceremony of Watanbe and the story unfolds through various flashbacks where all his co-employees recalls their experinces with Wantanbe. In one scene a co-employee recalls that Wantanbe has told him these lines, ’’I can’t be angry. I don’t have the time’’.This dailogue essentially summarises the life of Wantanbe after his realisation. After the discovery of the fact that he has got very less time to live Wantanbe does somuch that would have been not possible for many in whole of their life.
Ikiru is a must watch for anykind of filmgoer. It stands out with those classics like Citizen Kane, Bicycle Thief, Pather Panchali. But its not slow like Pather Panchali. Only the second part of the film is little longer and drags a bit but the first part of the film is very fast in pace.
Ikiru is a master piece from the master of Japanese Cinema. It excells in all the departments be it screenplay, cinematography, editing or music. The music of this movie needs a special mention here. The music is soft and involving. The song sung by Wantanbe at the club still rings in my ears even after almost one year.
This is a movie that has got the power to transform lives.Please watch this movie .Do not miss this movie.Try to grab a DVD of it as it contains loads of loads information about Akira Kurosawa and the making of Ikiru. For all those people who are not much familiar with Akira Kurosawa here is some information about him.
Akira Kurosawa is the most popular and critically acclaimed Japanese director in the west. Like Satyajit Ray he was also the first asian director to cross over in the west with his film, ’’Rashoman.’’And again like Stayjit Ray who was influenced by Italian cinema especially Vittorio De Sica (Director of Bicycle Thief) , Akira Kuroswa too is very much influenced by Hollywood cinema and especially John Ford (Director of The Quiet Man).