Director: Akiro Kurusawa
At first look, you know you are into something good. It starts with a Barium Meal film of a picture of stomach with a filling defect. The commentator, a bloke (San) with a razor sharp tongue and witty remarks, tells us that that Xray was that of a civil servant with gastric cancer but he does not know about his disease.
Then the frame goes on to a sombre unfriendly elder gentleman (Kanji Watanabe) at his desk, doing his uninspiring work, like he had been doing for the past 30 years, stamping documents over documents at the City Council 's Public Affairs office. Even though his colleagues are jovial, cracking jokes amongst themselves, he as the leader stays serious. He is marking his time to retirement which is just 6 months away after toiling away 30 years in that department.
Then the frame goes on to a sombre unfriendly elder gentleman (Kanji Watanabe) at his desk, doing his uninspiring work, like he had been doing for the past 30 years, stamping documents over documents at the City Council 's Public Affairs office. Even though his colleagues are jovial, cracking jokes amongst themselves, he as the leader stays serious. He is marking his time to retirement which is just 6 months away after toiling away 30 years in that department.
To illustrate this nothingness, a bevy of housewives present at the counter with a suggestion to build a playground at the living area which had clogged up with stagnant water and breeding mosquitoes. They are shuttled and pushed around from department to department (Engineering, Sanitation, Park, etc.) to Mayor's office and back to Public Affairs again, fuming mad!
As Watanabe's heartburn worsens, he is seen waiting at a gastric clinic. A fellow patient scares him with all the symptoms and sequelae of cancer and how the doctors conceal the gravidity of their real sickness. Sure enough, when it is Kanasawa's turn he receives the same sanitized news!
Knowing that his days are numbered, a depressed Watanabe sits in his dark room. He inadvertently overhears his son (Mitsuo) and daughter-in-law making plans to buy a bigger house, eyeing his pension money, making unsavoury remarks about him.
He recollects how, after losing his wife at young age when Mitsuo was 5. He decided no to remarry against relatives' advice and dedicated his life in bringing up his son. He was there for all major milestones in his life- baseball game, college etcetera. Watanabe feels that he had wasted his life!
Watanabe withdraws all his life savings (after stinging for years), absents himself from work, after 30 years of unblemished record and leaves the house for a few days!
His subordinates are making plans on taking over his post and his son is eyeing on Kanji's pension fund.
Whilst drinking sake in a local shop - a teetotaler drinking his woes away, he befriends a writer who lends him a sympathetic ear. He decides to show Kanji the nightlife that he had never experienced. Crawling between pubs, cabarets, red light districts, Kanji realises that he did not fit in.
Kanji returns home. On the way, he meets the young lone female staff in his Department. She was looking for him to sign some paper for her to quit her job. The bubbly girl was bored stiff with her current job and wanted to venture out to more lively jobs. They return home to get his office stamp to the roving eyes of his son, daughter-in-law and maid. They assume that he had taken a young mistress.
Meanwhile, Kanji spends a lot of time with this girl. He envies her positive carefree outlook of life. She tells him that doing things that she likes (like the toys that she is making in her workplace where she feels that she is playing with all the children of the world) makes her going.
With renewed zest, Kanji returns to works. He works untiringly against the irritation of his colleagues, bosses and even the underworld to build the earlier stalled playground project (in the beginning of the film). Kanji dies just as his project is complete.
During his wake ceremony, the Deputy Mayor and his staff have an elaborate discussion on Kanji's sudden change of working style, his obsession with the playground project and whether Kanji did indeed know about his terminal cancer. As the sake consumption increased and the crowd become louder, they realise that Kanji was aware of illness and was making amends to his work style. The colleagues decide that they should emulate Kanji's action.
The next day, as they sober up, we discover that it is business as usual. Nobody has the courage to change the status quo. The staff continue siphoning off complaints to other department without going out of their way to solve the clients' complaint!
This story is based on Leo Tolstoy's short story titled 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich'. Tolstoy in his days was a revolutionary thinker who influenced people like M.K. Gandhi to embark simple living and passive resistance.
As Watanabe's heartburn worsens, he is seen waiting at a gastric clinic. A fellow patient scares him with all the symptoms and sequelae of cancer and how the doctors conceal the gravidity of their real sickness. Sure enough, when it is Kanasawa's turn he receives the same sanitized news!
| Stomach Ca and EtOH? |
He recollects how, after losing his wife at young age when Mitsuo was 5. He decided no to remarry against relatives' advice and dedicated his life in bringing up his son. He was there for all major milestones in his life- baseball game, college etcetera. Watanabe feels that he had wasted his life!
Watanabe withdraws all his life savings (after stinging for years), absents himself from work, after 30 years of unblemished record and leaves the house for a few days!
His subordinates are making plans on taking over his post and his son is eyeing on Kanji's pension fund.
Whilst drinking sake in a local shop - a teetotaler drinking his woes away, he befriends a writer who lends him a sympathetic ear. He decides to show Kanji the nightlife that he had never experienced. Crawling between pubs, cabarets, red light districts, Kanji realises that he did not fit in.
Kanji returns home. On the way, he meets the young lone female staff in his Department. She was looking for him to sign some paper for her to quit her job. The bubbly girl was bored stiff with her current job and wanted to venture out to more lively jobs. They return home to get his office stamp to the roving eyes of his son, daughter-in-law and maid. They assume that he had taken a young mistress.
| What makes you happy? |
With renewed zest, Kanji returns to works. He works untiringly against the irritation of his colleagues, bosses and even the underworld to build the earlier stalled playground project (in the beginning of the film). Kanji dies just as his project is complete.
During his wake ceremony, the Deputy Mayor and his staff have an elaborate discussion on Kanji's sudden change of working style, his obsession with the playground project and whether Kanji did indeed know about his terminal cancer. As the sake consumption increased and the crowd become louder, they realise that Kanji was aware of illness and was making amends to his work style. The colleagues decide that they should emulate Kanji's action.
| Drunken promises! |
This story is based on Leo Tolstoy's short story titled 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich'. Tolstoy in his days was a revolutionary thinker who influenced people like M.K. Gandhi to embark simple living and passive resistance.
This story asks us the question of the purpose of our lives. We can choose a life living (sacrificing) for your children, your job, yourself (by indulging in activities to satisfy your psychological happiness) or for the people who needs your assistance.You must find joy in whatever you do as seen in the tail end of the movie where Kanji plays the swing in the playground that he helped to build, smiling, feeling contended having achieving something!
The gripping song, a favourite of the protagonist titled 'Life is Brief'
[singing] Life is brief, fall in love, maidens...Before the crimson bloom fades from your lips...Before the tides of passion cools within you...For those of you who know no tomorrow...Life is brief, fall in love, maidens...Before our raven tresses begin to fade...Before the flames in your hearts flicker and die...For those to whom today will never return..'The Gondola Song' (1915)
Memorable quotes: (Wikiquotes)
- I can't afford to hate anyone. I don't have that kind of time.
- I have less than a year to live. When I found that out... somehow I was drawn to you. Once when I was a child, I almost drowned. It's just like that feeling. Darkness everywhere, and nothing for me to hold onto, no matter how hard I try. There's just you.
- Dying is very difficult. I don't know what I've been doing with my life all these years.
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