IKIRU: A worthwhile experience and a change of cinematic pace.

IKIRU Summary:
Kenji Watanabe (played by Takashi Shimura) is a middle-aged burecrat at the City Hall who has really done nothing with his life. And yet, when he discoveres that he has stomach cancer, Watanabe tries to find out what he can do before he dies. After spending one night on the town with a bummed-out novelist and trying to understand his strange attraction to a young girl, Watanabe finds out that he can do something: attempt to make a dream come true to a small neighborhood by having a cesspool sewage area converted to a playground for the local children.

To be truthful, I have recently aquired a taste for Akira Kurosawa. Despite seeing THE SEVEN SAMURAI years agom, I have never seen any of his other films up until this point, recently being his 1949 crime-drama STRAY DOG, staring Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura. And upon seeing STRAY DOG, I said to myself, "God, why have I now just discovered this man's work?" And after that, gathering together his other films like HIGH AND LOW (1963), YOJIMBO (1961) and the equally brilliant THRONE OF BLOOD (1957) for recent viewings, I really admire the man's work even more. But after that, it made me wonder if their were other films of Kurosawa's that I have missed. And indeed their was, and it was IKIRU.

Made in 1952 during the height of Kurosawa's career, IKIRU comes as a suprise as it is quite unlike any of his other films. THRONE OF BLOOD and YOJIMBO are samurai based pictures filled with action, tension, and deep-rooted suspense; while HIGH AND LOW and STRAY DOG are crime-dramas with the same three items that I mentioned. IKIRU is quite the opposite: it's bleak, saddening, and above all heart-wrenching. Which is quite unexpected of Mr. Kurosawa's later work as IKIRU stands alone in it's genre. But in all regards, the film is pretty simple and focuses on a straight narrative: Watanabe's struggle with his inevitable death and his battle to do something with his life and making a difference. Such a film today is hard to come by, but if you are looking for simple fluff in IKIRU it's best that you put that behind you because it's nothing close to fluff. If anything, IKIRU is quite a sad film that will leave you with an endng that is quite a put-off, but inevitable just the same and makes a pretty bold statement about society, responsibility, and yes even democracy. Kurosawa workes with a semi-talky film, but with the usage of creative camera angles and minimal scoring, IKIRU is more successfull than a typical 50's Hollywood drama pic. And the film works even more due to the damn fine performance by Takashi Shimura, who played smaller roles in other Kurosawa films like STRAY DOG and THRONE OF BLOOD, not to mention playing the memorabe character Professor Yamane in Ishiro Honda's GODZILLA. Rarely playing leading roles (and at the time, he was never considered a top-biled leading player at all), Shimura's performance is INCREDIBLE and certainly showed the man had the ability to play a lead, despite that in his later years still continued his usual small-character roles.

However, compare IKIRU to such a recent like THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST in terms of message and heart-wrenching images, IKIRU takes the stand more than PASSION OF THE CHRIST (Special Note: Just in case any of you readers are speculating, please keep in mind that I am not using this review/discussion to badmouth Gibson's film, rather I use it as a comparison issue. So if their are those who are upset by my bringing up of the film, please throw in your imput, but in a mature manner please.). While the two films are indeed made by different directors and have different intents, both IKIRU and THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST are meant to move the audience into the story with both their depections of one man. Despite the difference of the two in terms of story and other miscelaneous items, it's IKIRU that will really make you move. For instance, in the final moments of IKIRU, we are treated to a stratling image of Watanabe sitting on a swing-set and singing his theme song while the snow comes down; all this was shot in black-and-white using only two simple camera setups and minimal scoring. And amazingly enough to the first-time viewer, this short 3 minute image is quite strong and can definately make a tear jerk out of your eye. It certainly made me do so, and it makes me even wonder if Kurosawa saw IT'S A WONDERFULL LIFE as IKIRU does share some similar themes from the Frank Capra film. But compare the 3 minute scene in IKIRU to the 30 minute torture scene in THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, it makes me wonder how a mainstream audience can relate to Gibson's long-running image than Kurosawa's brief and quite acceptable scene. Of course, one has to consider that IKIRU can be taken into context of "simple entertainment fluff" when it was first released and how the critics praised it, at the same time not really getting the message that Kurosawa was trying to get across. Even so, in my opinion, IKIRU does succeed more than PASSION OF THE CHRIST in it's delivery of moving the audience. The one image that I described alone is worth the price of the rental, just to see how it's done in a less pandering and less pushy way than how some filmmakers today would do it.

But, to sum it up, IKIRU is a film that I most definately recommend. Go out and rent it, buy it, or even steal a copy if you have too! Either way, if you haven't seen the film it is worth a viewing for both the story, style, and Takashi Shimura's great performance. And if their are any Akira Kurosawa admirers here, please thrown in your imput. I am dying to hear some responses.