Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru

The story of Watanabe in Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru reflects the ancient idea that one is never more alive than when in the face of death. Watanabe when the story begins is a man about whom one could say, as the narrator does, "It would be difficult to say that he is really alive" (147). Watanabe is an old man, but this does not mean he has lived to this time. Instead, he has merely existed--living entails more than this. He has little awareness of the world around him beyond fearing it and its possible consequences to himself. He is a small man who has made himself smaller in order not to be a burden, not to be a threat, not to be more alive than necessary. All this changes when he learns that he has a limited time left on earth, and he begins to live when he faces death. While that experience of really living may be relatively short, it is intense and real and leaves Watanabe a happy and successful man.

Watanabe does not immediately shift to the state of being alive. Rather, he spends several months in self-absorption, feeling sorry for himself for what has happened to him and also for what has not happened to him. He realizes the waste his life has been and feels the injustice the universe has thrust upon him by taking that life, as he sees it, before his time. It is the influence of Toyo, the young woman who has quit her job to work in a toy factory, that guides the old man toward an act that will give him life for a short time and that will make his life have mean

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nd only her husband treats her like a person. He cannot, however, do anything about the way she is treated by his mother and grandmother: he cannot even fathom why they would behave as they do. There are different customs for the Semba commercial families, and this troubles Kikuji more and more. Because Hiroko cannot or will not fit into the customs of this particular subculture in society, she is to be sent home. The older women make these decisions and then tell the son and husband their decision. Hiroko is treated as no more than a breeding convenience by these older women: We brought in an outsider for just that purpose, didn't we? And now we have the successor to the family line (26). The women of the family are the guardians of the reputation of the family, and this requires strict conformity to certain customs and prescriptions. Hiroko does not conform and so is expected simply to leave, her child, of course, remaining with the family. Marriages are arranged in this society, and they are conducted in a business-like fashion. This is especially true of marriages with the Semba, and when Hiroko is sent home, her trousseau goes with her, all carefully detailed and inventoried. The seemingly cavalier way Hiroko is t

Category: Film - A