“I don’t know what I’ve been doing with my life all these years.” – Kanji Watanabe
Among Akira Kurosawa’s filmography, his motion picture Ikiru is considered one of his masterpieces. It stars Takashi Shimura, one of his frequent cast participants, performing the role of a business man who lives his last months the best way anyone could live them. By helping his community.
In the story, Ikiru shows how bureaucrat Kanji Watanabe reassesses his life routines in drastic ways as he realizes by himself that he has stomach cancer, which his doctors conceal to him by pretending to him that he has ulcers. Of that medical aspect which may baffle some international viewers, it is a detail that mangaka Osamu Tezuka denounced in his medical series Black Jack, where he condemned this practice in the Japanese medecine business; where some doctors hide from their patients the truth about their disease for fear that they would commit suicide. Which is an offensive way of treating the will of living of their patients and of their desire to cure their ailments.
First partying in bars, dance clubs, and other night locations, while reassessing the way his relatives have treated him, Kanji then decides to help others through his work at the city hall. Through a project of transforming the mud swamp in his neighbourhood into a local park. A great way to brighten up the community and to get rid of what is an unhealthy hazard for everybody.
Of Takashi Shimura, he has given many roles in his career. For over 200 productions. And with Akira Kurosawa, he is considered his most frequent colleague. As important as Toshiro Mifune. But for this production, Takashi Shimura delivers his most haunting and amazing performance. A character who can barely speak through whispers, yet emits a will to love that stuns everyone. From the other protagonists to the audience themselves who know of his pains and trials, but are powerless to help him.
Interestingly, the film is shot in two drastic structures. The first part through Kanji Watanabe’s angle. But as for the second part, it occurs after his death and is seen through the angle of his work colleagues and relatives. A cinema technique that unsettles the audience, but which is a clever one.
Indeed, that decision makes us notice how much a story is influenced by the perspective we take. It changes our view of the protagonist and how he perceives others; but also changes our view of their perspectives and makes us see him through their angles. And with their angle, we are reentering Rashomon territories. We now see the story and the protagonist from people who barely knew Kanji, who saw him from afar and had prejudices on him. Preconceptions that are shattered by what happened to him and what he did. Almost giving us a cinema-verite take to this work.
As a film, Ikiru confronts how much we take life and others around us for granted, but it also confronts the insufferable bureaucratic rules within city halls that guide people in needs through endless and discouraging mazes. It presents a very humanistic movie from Akira Kurosawa and shows another angle from his filmography. One with melodrama and lots of tears.
On another note, while looking at the built park/mud swamp set, I noticed how much it is identical to the one in Drunken Angel. Same bridge structure, same walls, same building display, and also a muddy swamp. Indeed, those identical traits startled me and it makes me wonder if they didn’t reused the same set for this movie. Also, it made me wonder if several of Akira Kurosawa’s stories aren’t set in the same world. In the same city and neighborhood. If it is the case, then it would bring a whole new different depth to some of his work.
Regardless of that aspect, as a movie, Ikiru is one of the landmarks in Akira Kurosawa and Takashi Shimura’s filmographies. A magnificent melodrama and slice of life that moves our souls.
A masterpiece that stays in our hearts forever.
Omnes's Oasis 