This blog entry is part of my “movie year countdown”. To read more about that check out my first Spout filmblog entry.
Ikiru
This has probably been called the Japanese version of It's A Wonderful Life. It's something I thought of at least once while watching it. The stories are both about a person learning the ways that they can single handedly affect the lives of others for the better. Although in many ways their conclusions may be the total opposite.
Ikiru gives you many different ways to look at it. In fact the whole second half of the film is looking at events from different character's points of view. But overall it seems to have a mostly overall negative view of the world, whereas It's A Wonderful Life is hard to view as anything but ultimately completely life affirming.
Although it's not a surprising difference between American film and foreign film, in this case I feel more attachment to the American one. Maybe because even though It's A Wonderful Life could be argued as having a trite sense of spirituality, Ikiru feels totally godless. That's just now how I view the world. But I am still affected by the performance of characters who do.
Rating: 8/10