Kurosawa's beloved humanist ode to the redemptive power of giving back.
One of the most beloved films of all-time from one of the most beloved filmmakers of all-time,
Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru (“to live”) is a humanist masterpiece. When an unremarkable bureaucrat, Kanji Watanabe (played by the unforgettably soulful
Takashi Shimura) - who’s spent his entire life just going through the motions - learns he has terminal cancer, he begins a desperate search to find purpose and some meaning in it all. Unable to open up to his son and daughter-in-law, who find him to be a pathetic nuisance in their lives, Watanabe looks outward.
He tries living in excess, drinking and partying the night away, which leaves him more miserable than ever, and later attempts living vicariously through a young, zestful coworker, who ultimately finds Watanabe’s obsession with her youth to be draining.
At his lowest point and full of self-pity, Watanabe has a revelation and dedicates himself, finding spiritual freedom in creating his own purpose. He makes it his mission, regardless of the many bureaucratic obstacles that stand in his way, to spend his remaining days on Earth helping out a group of desperate families by cleaning up a large, uncovered cesspit in the middle of their neighborhood, where he can then build a children's playground on the formerly contaminated site.
The scene of Watanabe swinging alone on his newly finished playground, singing serenely to himself, snow elegantly drifting around him, at peace with his life and ready to accept death, is one of the most revered in cinema history. Kurosawa leaves us with the simple but universal message that the most meaningful, the most human thing we can do, is to give back and improve our communities and the lives of those around us, needless of gratitude or recognition, knowing at heart that our actions have left a positive and lasting impact on the world.
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