{"id":1225,"date":"2012-02-16T03:29:55","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T07:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=1225"},"modified":"2012-02-16T03:30:31","modified_gmt":"2012-02-16T07:30:31","slug":"ikiru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=1225","title":{"rendered":"Ikiru"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently subscribed to Netflix so I could catch up on watching a bunch of movies (old and new, but mostly old) that I\u2019ve been wanting to see.  So I might have some random blog posts every now and then about random thoughts on random old movies.  (There may be some spoilers in such posts as these, in case you care.)<\/p>\n

The latest film I watched was Ikiru<\/em> from 1952.  The film tells the tale of an old civil service worker, Watanabe, who is quite bored by his job but bears it anyway.  When he learns he has stomach cancer and has less than a year to live, his life suddenly seems incredibly wasted and he\u2019s not sure how to cope.  Overall, I thought it was quite good, though the pace was a bit slow for me at some parts.  Also, the second half of the film was quite strange.  Half way through the film we jump forward in time to after Watanabe\u2019s death, and are given the rest of the important moments leading up to his death in flashbacks recounted at his wake by those who knew him.  On the one hand, telling the second half of the story in flashbacks allows us to see how Watanabe affected others with his behavior, and allows us to easily skip around to the more interesting moments, without having to see resolutions to each and every scene.  I guess the problem I have with it is that the style of storytelling is just too different from the first half.  I think flashbacks would\u2019ve worked if the director had actually told the entire<\/em> story that way, instead of just the second half.  Instead, we go from seeing the world through Watanabe for half the film, to viewing him from the outside.  Perhaps that was the point, but I think the story would\u2019ve been stronger if the director stuck with one method throughout.  Or even overlapped them throughout.<\/p>\n

One thing I loved about the movie was the cinematography.  There was some awesome use of deep focus, which we seem to get hardly any of in movies today: shots in which almost everything is in focus; what\u2019s close to the screen and what\u2019s far away.  Here are some shots I particular liked:<\/p>\n

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Watanabe\u2019s head is taking up half the screen, but our focus is on the guys on the other half, as they look at him and are surprised and not very pleased to see him back at work.<\/p>\n

A few similar shots, with only three people in each shot, each at varying distances and heights, making each pleasing:<\/p>\n

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A couple shots with more people, all arranged so we can see all their faces clearly, and know what they\u2019re focusing on:<\/p>\n

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I love all the enormous stacks of paper in that office in the first shot; probably a bit tongue-in-cheek to show how wasteful such work is, with paper and energy and time. And I love the composition of that second shot, with the faces all arrayed so nicely and clearly. Who these days would take the time to create a shot like that?<\/p>\n

Some nice frames-within-frames:<\/p>\n

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(OK, that last one\u2019s a bit of a joke \u2013 because it\u2019s literally a frame.  Heh heh heh.)  I especially love that playground shot.  Symbolic?<\/p>\n

Here was a great little sequence.  In the first shot, we have our characters talking in the foreground, a man sitting behind them, and other people way in the back.  As the conversation continues and intensifies, Watanabe moves and blocks out those people way in the back.  As the conversation intensifies even more for Watanabe, he switches sides, coming closer to the camera and turning from the speaker.<\/p>\n

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Some nice \u201cshots from behind\u201d:<\/p>\n

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There were some nice two-way dialog shots in which, with the deep-focus, the background between the two characters was quite clear, almost to the point of distraction, yet the subject matter of the conversations kept the attention on the characters\u2019 interactions:<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s a very nice silhouette shot.  The focus (and subject matter of the characters\u2019 dialog) is the sky.  Too bad it\u2019s not in color.<\/p>\n

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This was an interesting moment in the film.  Watanabe is walking downstairs; he\u2019s just had a flash of inspiration.  He\u2019s just come to terms with his death.  It\u2019s a pivotal moment in the film.  It\u2019s the \u201cbreak into three\u201d after the \u201call the lost\u201d moment.  So he rushes down the stairs and the people behind him are singing \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d in English to a character who\u2019s off screen.  But the song might as well be for him.  It\u2019s such obvious use of . . . some thematic device.  I almost burst out laughing.  (Actually, not almost, I did<\/em> burst out laughing.)  He finally comes to terms with his impending death, and this group of happy young people are singing \u201cHappy Birthday.\u201d  It\u2019s almost silly.  I certainly would never have thought of something like that.<\/p>\n

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In the shot afterwards, we see the girl he was just talking to.  She\u2019s not sure what just happened.  But, with the deep focus, it looks as if she\u2019s watching that group of happy people across the room, looking down on them.  A group of privileged young people around her age that she\u2019ll never be a part of.  It\u2019s almost rather sad.  Someday, when mortality is knocking on her door, she may suffer the same inner-trials as Watanabe.  We don\u2019t really leave her character on a happy note.  Or maybe she\u2019s just sad that Watanabe took her toy bunny.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s an excellent mirror shot.  How else can you have two characters facing each other, yet not facing each other?  Gotta love shots like these.<\/p>\n

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Then we zoom in on the mirror so we have this great line-up of talking heads with shiny glassware lined up underneath.  Nice.<\/p>\n

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And, finally, my favorite shot.  Watanabe is dead, and this character has vowed to be more like him, or at least how he was after he changed in the months before his death.  Here, this character just had an opportunity to hold true to his vow.  He stands up and looks at his coworkers as if to say: \u201cC\u2019mon!  Did Watanabe teach us nothing?\u201d  But then he cowardly changes his mind and sits back down, slowly disappearing behind the enormous stacks of paper, letting himself sink back into the drudgery of life.  Sadly, nothing will change for this man anytime soon.<\/p>\n

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I recently subscribed to Netflix so I could catch up on watching a bunch of movies (old and new, but mostly old) that I\u2019ve been wanting to see.  So I might have some random blog posts every now and then about random thoughts on random old movies.  (There may be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[99],"tags":[467],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s7gI4B-ikiru","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}