to live
Ikiru: 9.0
if a movie ever explained my current mindstate and the overwhelming anxieties that monopolize my time, this would be it. A movie about a man who realizes he's about to die and at the same time, that he hasn't really been living, it's yet another wake-up call to me that, as the movie states, i have only been passing time, and not living, hence, not alive. even though i have more than at least a year left in me, there is that urgency still. perhaps i am reminded of my mortality through other means, but that's getting off topic. After he finds out that he's wasted a whole lifetime, we're taken through a journey to find some purpose or meaning to life with this poor man. The journey is colorfully told through an excellent combination of camerawork and editting, and a key moment is ironically conveyed through the use of a certain song. Also, underlying his struggle is a similar theme to tokyo story of the changing times that bring with it general alienation and conflicts between generations.
My only complaint with this movie has to do with its structure. This movie is divided into two parts, the first told through the subjective view of the main character. The second part of the narrative switches to the viewpoint of others. Much like Rashomon, the administrators that the main character works with try to piece together how the great change in his personality came about. In doing this, we get pieces of what happened after the first part and how it was viewed by his peers. The bigger effect that this produced was to create a unnecessary(though well done) sort of social/political commentary on the bureaucracy. I think the movie could have been more cohesive as a whole if it had continued in the vein of the first story, but I have to admit that the second part did add a worldly dimension to his struggle. That is, the protagonist's personal struggle is minimized in light of how it affected (or how it didn't affect) most everyone else; it didn't change how the rest of the characters lived, but it focuses on the point that each struggle is your own, and in the end, what really matters is whether your own self is happy.
if a movie ever explained my current mindstate and the overwhelming anxieties that monopolize my time, this would be it. A movie about a man who realizes he's about to die and at the same time, that he hasn't really been living, it's yet another wake-up call to me that, as the movie states, i have only been passing time, and not living, hence, not alive. even though i have more than at least a year left in me, there is that urgency still. perhaps i am reminded of my mortality through other means, but that's getting off topic. After he finds out that he's wasted a whole lifetime, we're taken through a journey to find some purpose or meaning to life with this poor man. The journey is colorfully told through an excellent combination of camerawork and editting, and a key moment is ironically conveyed through the use of a certain song. Also, underlying his struggle is a similar theme to tokyo story of the changing times that bring with it general alienation and conflicts between generations.
My only complaint with this movie has to do with its structure. This movie is divided into two parts, the first told through the subjective view of the main character. The second part of the narrative switches to the viewpoint of others. Much like Rashomon, the administrators that the main character works with try to piece together how the great change in his personality came about. In doing this, we get pieces of what happened after the first part and how it was viewed by his peers. The bigger effect that this produced was to create a unnecessary(though well done) sort of social/political commentary on the bureaucracy. I think the movie could have been more cohesive as a whole if it had continued in the vein of the first story, but I have to admit that the second part did add a worldly dimension to his struggle. That is, the protagonist's personal struggle is minimized in light of how it affected (or how it didn't affect) most everyone else; it didn't change how the rest of the characters lived, but it focuses on the point that each struggle is your own, and in the end, what really matters is whether your own self is happy.
posted by christopher sly at 13:19
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