Japanese Cinema: Akira Kurosawa’s “Ikuru” Essay

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I have always been fond of Japanese culture. Sometimes I feel their outlook is so radically different from ours that it can hardly be explained. As Americans we always struggle for happiness, we want freedom and joy for everybody. Of course, there are many tragic pages in our history, but still, Americans are known for their optimistic world outlook. And as for the Japanese… When I think of them something like soft sweet pain touches my heart. Why is it so difficult to understand them? How can an American explain the possible reasons for suicide called seppuku? Because nothing can cost more than life! So, as you see, for me there is a lot to think about when I read books by Japanese authors or watch Japanese films.

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Akira Kurosawa is one of my favorite film directors. I like him for his exquisite sense of humor and for his distinctive cinematic technique. I also like the way he uses nature to intensify the viewer’s impression of the scene. Sometimes we forget about how close we are to nature, but in Kurosawa’s films the people and nature are one whole: for example, in the final bloody battle in Seven Samurai we can see pouring rain. His perfectionism is also shown in the costumes of his actors.

Some critics consider Ikuru to be Kurosawa’s best achievement. The Quarterly of Film, Radio, and Television called Ikiru “one of the greatest films of our time”.(Kurosawa: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema)

“Because this is vintage Kurosawa, we remain too mesmerized to look away from the stunning beauty and poetry that is found in these deep, impenetrable scenes of human reflection. These scenes might leave us drained, but Kurosawa tells his tale so well that to leave the film before it is finished would only drain us more”. (Griffin)

Though the plot of the story is very simple, the range of the problems touched upon is quite big. The protagonist of the story, Kanji Watanabe, lives a dull life of a simple man. He is a clerk in a government office, and for him tomorrow is always like yesterday. There is nothing special neither about Watanabe’s appearance nor about his character or habits and we would have never known about him but for one fact, that changed all his life. He turned out to be dying of cancer. Only six months to live! What is so special about that scene is that we see Watanabe’s innards before we can see his face. Life is over! But how can it be? So many opportunities are lost even before he understands that he likes to live! Only six months left, but for Watanabe, it’s like a new beginning. He tries to start everything anew. There are so many pleasures he’s never tried, so many women he’ll never kiss. So when Watanabe meets Toyo, a young woman from his office, it’s like a breath of fresh air to him. She’s so young, fresh, and beautiful, maybe with her help, the final days of his will be adorned? But even the young woman cannot bring him joy and happiness. He still feels he’s so hopelessly lonely! Watanabe desperately struggles for something to keep him afloat. And in unison to the storm in his heart, we can hear Tokio pleasure-seekers laughing, drinking, and scuffling in the streets.

Music plays an important part in this film. The song about young girls who fall in love that Watanabe sings to the piano is full of hope and desperation at the same time. It is about pleasure, which is sweet, but death will take everything away. And he will sing this song sitting on the playground before facing his death.

One of the leitmotifs in this film is about the transiency of everything. This is the tragedy of every human being, of all the beauty and harmony in our lives! But only by understanding this, we can fill our lives with love and sense. It is difficult because usually, we can do anything except taking responsibility for our lives. People got accustomed to substituting living and emotions with empty formalism. So with Watanabe, it was the same. Though he knew that some mothers in the neighborhood asked the bureaucrats to make something with the swamp to turn it into a playground, Watanabe didn’t care.

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But what happened to this man in the end? Watanabe refused all the shadowy pleasures of a dissipated life because he understood that that way was leading nowhere. It was his try to “undertake an essential schism within himself”. (Films of Akira Kurosawa). In general, it makes no difference whether you drink or dance or just sit in your comfortable armchair writing useless orders, because this all is just desperate living, trying to find another way to death. In such a way Watanabe understands that the only way he can fill the remains of his life with meaning is by doing good to others. It’s no use telling people what to do and how to live. The only thing you can do is to make something of your own life. So this is not a surprise that Watanabe dies singing. He’s happy, but not because of the new park for children. What filled him with joy was the fact that he managed to do something really important, something vital. That is why his death is not the end of the story. The fact that a bent-over double man could make a change like that couldn’t fail to bring new thoughts to his colleagues’ heads. And after the postmortem investigation, Watanabe finally gained respect.

So what stroked me about this film was the idea, that you never know, when you win and when you lose. As for Watanabe, all his life before he learned his diagnosis seems merely a rough copy of something really important. In brief six months, dying of cancer, he finally finds life sense, and that makes other people think about timeless verities. What is more, you should never wait for any gratitude. Because everything you do is just for yourself, and that’s all. This problem is also highlighted in another Kurosawa film, Seven Samurai. These brave men helped poor people when their village was attacked by bandits. The people in the village had nothing to offer them except for meals. But still, samurais agreed to help them. To their surprise, the villagers didn’t welcome them, because they were just afraid of men with armor. After the final fight with the bandits, only three samurais survived. What strikes the viewer is that after everything is over, the villagers don’t only fail to treat samurais like heroes, but ignore them completely. They are happy with their regained piece, and their rice is all they are interested in. Kambei said, that the victory belonged to the peasants. And it becomes clear what he meant in the very beginning of the film when he said that he had never won a battle.

So in the end we come to the conclusion that you can never know when you find and when you lose. In Ikiru, the protagonist’s real-life started when he understood it was over. And in Seven Samurai they did hope to win the battle, but finally, their victory turned out to be their defeat.

So it is not a surprise that Akira Kurosawa’s films are known all over the world because they make people think about vital problems.

Works cited

Griffin, Danel. Film as Art. Ikiru (To Live). University of Alaska Southeast. Web.

Films of Akira Kurosawa. University of Pennsylvania. web.

Kurosava: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema. University of Pennsylvania. Web.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Japanese Cinema: Akira Kurosawa’s “Ikuru”." September 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/japanese-cinema-akira-kurosawas-ikuru/.

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IvyPanda. "Japanese Cinema: Akira Kurosawa’s “Ikuru”." September 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/japanese-cinema-akira-kurosawas-ikuru/.

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