| Overall Grade: |
F |
|
| Story: |
N/A |
|
|
| Acting: |
N/A |
|
|
| Direction: |
N/A |
|
|
| Visuals: |
N/A |
|
|
Ikiru - Akira Kurosawa
by SOULMAN (movies profile)
Jan 12, 2009
Ikiru directed by Akira Kurosawa is the story of a longtime city bureaucrat whose outlook on life changes once he learns that he is suffering from a terminal illness. This is the second Kurosawa film that I have seen, the other one being Seven Samurai. I have found that with the DVD of some foreign films that I have some trouble reading the subtitles at times and that was the case with Ikiru. This may have affected my appreciation for this film. I still must say that I was somewhat disappointed with Ikiru.
The storyline for this film seemed rather forced and seemed more along the lines of a fairy tale rather than something a great film could be built around. The comments about bureaucracy in Japan seemed extremely simplistic although it did add some good comedy to the film. Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura) as the protagonist of Ikiru seemed to be a bit of a strawman for the points Kurosawa wanted to make. If Watanabe were a more fully developed character this could have been a great film but this relatively weak development of the central character of the film kept it from being a great film. Ikiru also had a runtime of 2 hours and 23 minutes which is too long for the material that it contained and if Kurosawa could have cut 30 minutes out of the film it would have been a better film.
With these criticisms being stated this is a good film but just not a great film. The execution in all its elements is top notch as you would expect in a Kurosawa film. You will not see better photography in a film than you will see in Ikiru, in fact the visual elements of this film make it well worth watching. The non-linear presentation of the story is also well done. The ensemble for Ikiru also provide quality performances given some of the problems with the material mentioned above. |
My Public Profile 
