BACK TO THE MYTHICAL ORIENT : "IKURU / TO LIVE"

Ok, you may or may not have noticed that I have, these days, developed a “thing” about Akira Kurosawa. That is partly because I have acquired a rather large box set of his collective works. It’s not that I feel I HAVE to write about his stuff, it’s just that every single thing he does is so good! Well, since I am simply bubbling with Akira Kurosawa’s I want to talk about and this is “Asian Promises” week, I thought it only fitting that we should talk about Ikuru here. Not one of Kurosawa’s most famous films – which is why I want to talk about it here. It avoids Kurosawa’s usual topics, i.e. Japan of the Middle ages, and focuses on more up to date and philosophical topics such as work life, bureaucracy and well. The meaning of life… I LOVED this one, it is possibly my favorite Kurosawa so far…
Now, even if you don’t know Watanabe san personally, you definitely know someone like him. He is the head of a government office and has worked in the same office for 30 years. He has never missed a day of work. He never does anything outside of his daily routine. Even his family, his brother and his son (who lives with him with his wife) don’t know much about him – there is nothing much to know! Watanabe san is going through life in this semi-conscious state and not particularly considering doing anything about it until he is diagnosed with stomach cancer. The cancer is advanced and incurable. Watanabe san has no more than 6 months to live. At which point the old man realizes he has no idea how to live. He has, to all intents and purposes, never lived in his life… If he understands nothing else, Mr. Watanabe does see that this is his last chance to learn. So he drops everything and sets about finding out. Will he find the answer? One thing you can be sure of, his quest will astonish those around him in the remaining days of his life and after his death…
Now, for all intents of purposes this does look like a ‘50s version of “Eat, Pray, Love”, right? Wrong. Never underestimate the switch of perspective brought by the different geography. This is not a story about embracing life Julia Roberts style, or going through a series of amusing scrapes like “The Bucket List”, this is the story of a man clutching desperately at the few remaining days of his life, doubled over not only by the pain of the cancer but the pain brought on by the knowledge that he has wasted over 30 years of his life and now he only has a few months left. But it is not a bitter film either. Sad, yes. But also constructive. Watanabe is sad, but he is also desperately seeking an answer. And as we all know, people who truly seek tend to find.
And of course there is Kurosawa’s masterly touch. Black and white film can, in its composition alone convey so much emotion don’t you find? Especially in the hands of a master like Kurosawa. His mastery and imagination alone makes the film a joy to watch, add to that the philosophical nature of the film itself and it somehow feels more like a portrait and less a film… That sounds odd but you know what I mean… Not to be missed.