Ikiru (Kurosawa 1952) 544x400 H264.nfo
Ikiru (Kurosawa 1952) 544x400 H264
Ikiru (1952)
Not Rated | 2h 23min | Drama | 25 March 1956 (USA)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044741/
Rating: 8.3
A bureaucrat tries to find a meaning in his life after he discovers he
has terminal cancer.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Writers: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto | 1 more credit »
Stars: Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shin'ichi Himori
File: MP4
File size: 593 MB
Duration: 2:23:05
Video: H.264/AVC 544 x 400
Audio: AAC mono 96 Kbits
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: English, muxed (switchable); External SRT also incl.
Review by Jonathan Crow, Allmovie.com
This contemporary drama from Akira Kurosawa, better known for such
sweeping samurai epics as The Seven Samurai (1954), is arguably his
best film and the most articulate vision of his existential philosophy.
The film's protagonist seems to spring directly from the writings of
Jean-Paul Sartre or Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych: a tragic,
pathetic figure who has so immersed himself in daily routine that he
never learned to live. Only when confronted with his own imminent
demise does he give his live meaning by building a playground over an
open sewer in an impoverished section of town. The film is structured
in a peculiar bifurcated arrangement: it begins as a straightforward
plot that, halfway through, shifts into a fragmented narrative
recounted in flashbacks by mourners at Watanabe's funeral. In the
second half, we witness Watanabe's dogged struggle through the lenses
of his baffled co-workers' own unexamined lives. Initially viewing his
efforts with suspicion if not contempt, his workers fail to give
Watanabe any credit for his single-handed effort to build the park.
This section of Ikiru becomes compelling and ironic thanks to
Kurosawa's deft depiction of Watanabe's inner state in the first half.
Ikiru opens with an X-ray of Watanabe-a literal manifestation of his
interior world. The rest of the section, through a tour-de-force of
impressionistic and expressionistic cinematic devices, shows Watanabe's
slow awakening from his quarter-century stupor to learn what it is to
live. Takeshi Shimura delivers a staggering performance as Watanabe;
his large pleading eyes and hangdog face burn a haunting image in the
viewer's mind long after the film ends. The emotional force of Ikiru
leaves the viewer feeling both transformed by Watanabe's evolution and
contemplative about one's own life.
NOTE: Please ignore the spurious second subtitle track.
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