Japan's answer to Steven Spielberg, Akira Kurosawa, churned out a masterpiece that very few people know about in this 1952 study of a bureaucrat who finds out he has less than a year to live.
Kanji Watanabe lives his life as a petty official in the local Japanese government. When he discovers he is dying of stomach cancer, he realizes that he has never truly accomplished anything in his life that is truly meaningful and sets out in his last year to discover what a truly meaningful existence entails. Initially, he tries though a series of trips to bars and strip clubs with a writer whom he meets. ealizing his answer is not there, he then siezes on the platonic companionship of a young female coworker, hoping some of her zest for life will wear off on him. Again, this is not his answer, but she does supply him with a vital clue. He decides that a truly lasting accomplishment can only come from doing something truly altruistic, so he decides to assist a local group of women in reclaiming a vacant lot of stagnant water and trash into a park for the children to play in.
Typically, this is a difficult movie to watch. Japanese culture differs so much from Western society, many references may not be understood by the unititiated. This results in many calling the movie boring, or weak in plot, but it is not. The final scene is gauranteed to move you, if nothing else. The movie is divided into three sections, and the last third takes place at Watanabe's funeral. As the other petty bureacrats sit around trying to either take credit for or minimalize Kanji's accomplishment, you want to scream at them and make the realize that they are totally missing the point. Kanji did not act to have something to brag about, but to truly accomplish some kind of good in his life before he died...
A much better synopsis of the story can be given on Roger Ebert's web site than I can provide here:
http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/greatmovies/ikiru.html
If anyone ever watched only one of the movies I recommend here, this would be the one I want you to see... ;)
Kevin
Simviation Forums
Flight Simulator and other chat
