Akira Kurosawa - Ikiru (1952)

Along with the various uses of time and perspective in the narrative, Ikiru displays all the other hallmarks that make Kurosawa such an important and influential filmmaker. The framing, shot composition and editing techniques all beautifully work together to bring out the story the most dazzling of these being the sequence reminiscing about his son. The dissolves and the matching of shots past to present are used to such effect that the audience is left feeling his pain not of imminent death but wasted life. Special mention must also go to Takashi Shimura's beautiful performance as Mr Watanabe. Shimura and Kurosawa worked many times together, most famously in Seven Samurai where Shimura played the head samurai. As Mr Watanabe, Shimura's mannerisms and reactions take the audience into the inner most depths and thoughts of the character. His performance lingers through the second half even though we barely see him.

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File Size (in bytes) ............................: 2,039,824,692 bytes
Runtime ............................................: 2:23:07

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044741/

Language: Japanese
Subtitles: English, Spanish and Portuguese (srt)

Criterion rip, posted originally at kG by charulata, whom we thank