"I can't afford to hate people. I don't have that kind of time."
- Kanji Watanabe

Well that kicked me right in the feels! Oof.

Takashi Shimura plays the role of his life in what I'd describe as the happiest, saddest, most well-scripted 'life story' movie I've ever seen.

There are parts of this that either borrow from or lend to so many of the classics. 12 Angry Men and It's a Wonderful Life are most obvious. The level of thought that went into capturing emotion in the screenplay here is phenomenal, and the cast treat it with incredible sensitivity. The final scenes looking back over the years are just beautiful and so hard to put into words. The soundtrack makes it all the more dramatic though, and setting it against such a stunning winter backdrop was inspired.

I saw Kurosawa San's Ran recently and that for me was the absolute pinnacle of the Samurai genre. Spectacularly beautiful and mesmerizing. It just doesn't get any better than that. What he did for Technicolor there, he did for good old B&W here and in an entirely different genre. Where Ran was a full-contact assault on your body, Ikiru is a gentle but deadly manipulation of your nervous system. The guy was a bloody magician. Seriously.

Thank you so much MandelBroSet for putting me on to this one. It's an absolute belter and has gone straight to the pool room (aka my Top-10).

Brilliant.

Watched as part of Scavenger Hunt #62 | May 2020 - #30/31