Ikiru (To Live)

So I am currently working on my final paper in which we have to reference the Japanese film Ikiru and this movie is so incredible. I can honestly say that it is one of the greatest films I have ever witnessed. With a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, its pretty obvious I am not alone on this one. 

It is about a boring bureaucrat, Kanji Watanabe, who discovers he has less than a year to live, he realizes that he has done nothing with his life and hasn't been living at all in fact. In a panic he seeks life through other people, first an author who he goes out drinking and dancing with, the night ends up with him throwing up blood in the street. Next he seeks out a young woman who used to work for him until she quit to go work for a toy shop. She is very joyful and lively and Kanji finds himself enjoying himself for once. She gets creeped out and he tells her about his inevitable death to explain why he has been acting like he has, he asks how she is so joyful all the time when all she does is labor and eat. She tells him that when she is making the small bunny toys, she feels like she is playing with every child in Japan. This inspires him to go and create a park out of a swampy area. He seeks to do something meaningful with himself before he dies. 

Here is the trailer:

"I have less than a year to live. When I found that out... somehow I was drawn to you. Once when I was a child, I almost drowned. It's just like that feeling. Darkness everywhere, and nothing for me to hold onto, no matter how hard I try. There's just you." -Kanji

(Kanji with the young woman, Toyo)

"All she can convey to him is her simple-minded pleasure in manufacturing cheap little toys that will bring pleasure to someone," -William Bernhardt

He succeeds in making the park, he does it with fervor and passion and truly enjoys his endeavor. I could go on and on about what happens and how it is such a great film, but you should really watch it yourself. It is truly one of the most moving films I have ever seen. I literally want to cry while I'm writing this. I don't think there is any amount of praise I can give to express how I truly feel in my heart about this film.

The last scene is him swinging in the park he helped come about singing a lullaby called, "Life is Brief"

life is brief
fall in love, maidens
before the crimson bloom
fades from your lips
before the tides of passion
cool within you,
for those of you
who know no tomorrow
life is brief

"Wantanabe's triumph is not overcoming meaningless, but in seeing it clearly and resolving to live in its void." -Jeffrey Gordon

I should be writing my paper on this right now but I just needed to rant about how much this film moved me, which I can't really do in the paper, but I will try and convey as much of that as I can in it.

Please watch this, it has helped me rethink the way I live my life for the better, and it is truly a masterpiece.

~~~

"I can't afford to hate people. I haven't got that kind of time." -Kanji