"Ikiru" is a very moving film from Akira Kurosawa, but it's not one I think I'd ever want to watch again. I generally am very weirded out by stories about people dying of lingering illnesses, especially cancer, so this film made me quite uncomfortable, even if the conclusion it reaches is one I agree with, which is that we're all living on borrowed time and so we should be very frugal with it and selective about how we want to spend it.
The film "Living" with Bill Nighy was an updated version of this story, but needless to say it's a pale imitation of Kurosawa's original. The best part of the original version isn't even in the remake -- an extended scene set at the wake of the main character where everyone tries to justify their own lack of charity and selflessness in the face of someone who was an example of both.
Grade: A.
The film "Living" with Bill Nighy was an updated version of this story, but needless to say it's a pale imitation of Kurosawa's original. The best part of the original version isn't even in the remake -- an extended scene set at the wake of the main character where everyone tries to justify their own lack of charity and selflessness in the face of someone who was an example of both.
Grade: A.