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Ikiru: To Live and to Wallow in Boredom
Ikiru: To Live and to Wallow in Boredom

Ikiru: To Live and to Wallow in Boredom

Story by: Roy Adams Graphic by: Allison Anderson

Monday, September 25, 2017 | Number of views (2313)

Not all classics are recognised right away.  The films Singing in the Rain (1952) and Seven Samurai (1954) were both met with initial praise and attention, in the United States. In Japan, Ikiru, by Akira Kurosawa was released on March 26 of 1952, however the film did not see the US for another four years.  Ikiru is an emotional rollercoaster of a film best to be sat on and watched a over a period of months or years.  Like a great book it can be taken in a different light with each view. Roger Ebert published works on Ikiru in 1996 after viewing it periodically over 30 years.

 

This film entails the story of a man, who is in the same spot a lot of students can find themselves in.  Mid-way through a semester, with a few tests a week, homework, and a job on top of all that it can be hard for students to keep their motivations high. It becomes easy to turn on the auto-pilot and begin to coast.  This unfortunately happened to Ikiru’s solemn protagonist Kanji Watanabe, played by Takashi Shimura, who is Chief of the Department of City Hall.  

 

Stamping papers day after day, diverting problem one after another every day for 30 years; Watanabe in the film turns a group of women to another department because he didn't want to deal with their park. Watanabe is alive but not living as the narrator says.

 

The solemn bureaucrat, Watanabe, is jarred into existence when his doctor diagnoses him with stomach cancer and less than a year to live. The man goes to a bar and buys himself a drink for the very first time. He plans on spending all of his money in one go, to commemorate a life wasted. Watanabe stumbled upon a former employee of his, in the street, who left and took a new job and loved it. Watanabe was so moved by the young woman's, played by Miki Odagiri, passion for her new career his passion sparked again. Wanting to truly get something done for once, Watanabe calls forth all of his effort and ensures a city park gets built. After his death, the park is completed and the new Chief tries to take credit for the work, and almost gets the credit until Watanabe’s coworkers call him out.

 

Watanabe’s coworkers and family eventually understand why he tried so hard to make the park. They realize it stemmed from his belief that a life is not truly lived unless you can achieve something in service of something better. Yet, come the Monday after, they all go back to the monotony and laziness that was their lives before Watanabe demonstrated his new way to live.

 

Kurosawa had a compassionate message in mind which can be applied to people in all stages of life. This can be placed in the setting of a college student. The endless stamping of papers as homework and studying to be done in all classes. Homework can seem tedious and unfriendly. Most students just want it out of the way and some just copy and paste answers down like Watanabe would.  The problems he diverted too can be used too, into the time you need to divert in your life for studying, working, and living.  Without an even balance, a student faces becoming a zombie  like Watanabe is initially described by his staff.  Lastly, the completed city park is a symbol for Watanabe’s success in life and can be translated as the final grades at the semester end, your hard work behind the scenes may not go noticed at first but it will all pay off on the end .  When all is said and done nothing else is left if you have worked hard and honestly this there will always be a reward, even if you cannot see it.

 

With this film Kurosawa is implying emptiness can be avoided.  By earning what you have through passion and hard work you give yourself meaning.  Kurosawa wanted to show his viewers that they could take grasp of their own lives before it's too late to make anything of it. Do not wallow in your own boredom, transform it into something worth living for.

 

Follow Roy Adams on twitter @Roywade_  for more information, and stay up to date with FLC campus news by following @flcindependent and checking out theindyonline.com.

 
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