Ikiru, Take 2

I did finally watch Ikiru last night. It’s an amazing film, of course. I somehow never realized that “Parks and Rec” borrowed it’s opening premise from this film, with Leslie Knope finding purpose in becoming the irresistible force pushing the creation of an Indiana park through the unmovable object of city hall bureaucracy.

The soulful Takashi Shimura is impossible not to feel with as he absorbs the news of his terminal diagnosis and reacts first by abandoning himself to all the pleasures of distraction he had faithfully avoided and then, finally, by deciding to use himself up in “making something” meaningful as his way of emulating the irrepressible, glittering energy of young Miki Odagiri’s character. I loved the extended scene toward the end where all his fellow paper-pushers slowly realize what a truly heroic thing Watanabe accomplished as they gradually get more and more drunk at his wake.

Most poignant of all, for me, are Watanabe’s unrequited feelings of longing to connect with is grown son before his death, something he abandons as hopeless, thinking his son cares only about his retirement bonus and savings. Kurosawa does not attempt to solve the questions of the meaning life, but he does suggest that a bit of redemption can be found in overcoming the inertia of existence to serve others before we go.