Ikiru (1952) review

You can spend your entire life working and still accomplish nothing. Imagine living a life where you are constantly busy but, ironically, are not really moving in any direction. I’m glad my eyes were opened in my late 20s. I decided to take control of my life, resign from my job, and do business instead. Because of that, I was able to design my life in a way where I have more control over where my time goes instead of constantly working for somebody else. But I feel for people like Watanabe. They become slaves to their own lives. Maybe nobody ever showed them that there are other ways to live outside the cycle of working until retirement. Maybe they are simply too afraid to let go of the position they spent decades building. The film also made me think about absentee parents in a different way. Sometimes absentee parenting can also come from parents working too hard for the sake of their children’s future. They are providing for them, but in doing so, they can accidentally become absent from the very lives they are working so hard to improve. The third act disgusted me. Everyone starts taking credit for a dead man’s legacy, as if the project did not land on their own desks and they did not reject it the first time. Then when Watanabe tried again, they gave him an even harder time. Eventually, after the project became successful, they started using it for political gain. Watanabe challenged the system, but the movie is smart enough not to pretend that one good man can permanently change it. His coworkers sit there, reflect on his life, and seem to understand what he taught them. For one night, they are inspired. But once they return to work and still have all the time in the world, they fall back into the same habits and bury their heads in bureaucracy again. The biggest question Ikiru left me with is simple: if you knew your time was limited, what would you actually do with it? I honestly did not expect Watanabe to choose what he did. Instead of chasing fleeting happiness for himself, he chose to build something that would continue giving joy to people long after he was gone. The storytelling is straightforward, but the framing is carefully and meticulously designed. TL;DR: A deeply thought-provoking film about the difference between simply existing and actually living. It made me reflect on how easily we can become slaves to work, sacrifice our relationships for a future we might never enjoy, and mistake being busy for having a purpose. What struck me most is how one man found meaning in the little time he had left, while those who still had their whole lives ahead of them learned absolutely nothing. A powerful reminder that life is not just about how much time we have, but what we choose to do with it.