Ikiru 1952

Beautiful, devastating, yet hopeful. Shimura's dual performances of "Gondola No Uta" absolutely rip my heart out--first because of the despair, and then because of the magic. This is a film to keep close.

I watched 'Living' last night, which is the remake of this movie. It was good but nowhere near as good as Ikiru. My goodness is this such a superior movie! So much more depth and feeling to the main characters. Also, the story just flows much better and has more of a purpose to it. Kurosawa at his best and that means a lot!

Fantastic opening but got somewhat boring for the last third. Nice cinematography and image composition. Very good central performance.

A tragic story which is told in an impressive way. Until the last part that is. After the guy dies it becomes dull very fast. You can’t really expect a movie to stay interesting if it's just a bunch of guys talking about what happened. Could’ve kept that part a lot shorter imho. Would’ve been more balanced that way.

I will call this movie the slap in the middle class.

I see that the film follows the same old pattern of new cinema. And not that this is a problem, however seeing that this movie is the one before the classic 7 samurais it is difficult to like it more. After all, compared to its successor. Ikiru, is a more austere and conservative film. That way, it's hard to like the movie more. However, Kurosawa's stamp of quality is still visible and his cinema has an unrivaled craftsmanship. Both in camera movement and editing and despite not liking so many script formalities and the theatricality of the cast, we still managed to feel the film.

I highly recommend the film.