I still can't decide if Kurosawa's best film is Seven Samurai or Ikiru. Seven Samurai is perhaps the most influential film of the last half of the 20th century. Yet Ikiru is simply one of the most beautiful, most honest and touching films ever made. Here are five of my favorite scenes. What do you think? Which of your favorite scenes do you think I'm leaving out?
5- After Watanabe's doctor visit, where he finds out he has stomach cancer with six months to live, he drifts along aimlessly through the streets. There is no sound, prompting the audience to wonder if their TV broke, until Watanabe's daze is broken by the loud horn of a truck. Only then, we understand that the sound was not broken, that we were in Watanabe's mind, ignoring the outside world with the weight of the sudden devastating news bearing heavily on his shoulder. Kurosawa proves that sometimes a lack of sound is just as effective as a 5.1 surround extravaganza.
4- A very quick shot of the toy bunny created in the factory where the young girl Watanabe spends time with before his death works, nestled next to Watanabe's photo at his funeral. The shot appears right after one of the bureaucrats asks if the girl even bothered visiting Watanabe. Kurosawa answers the question without relying on a word of dialogue.
3- The ingenious and hilarious montage of various bureaucrats giving the poor women who complain about the disease-ridden swamp in their neighborhood, told with wipes, Kurosawa's favorite transition. If this montage feels very similar to many comedies you've seen, you're probably right. This is where it started.
2- At the jazz night club he visits with the intellectual novelist, Watanabe sings a song called "Life is Brief" (Also known as "The Gondola Song"). Kurosawa stays on Takeshi Shimura's face as he sings the song with a gravely, otherworldly voice, as pebble-sized teardrops fall from his eyes. Truly one of the greatest male performances in film history.
1- And finally, Watanabe sings "Life is Brief" again, swinging on the swings in the park he worked hard to create as one last attempt to bring some meaning to his otherwise pointless life. The snow falls delicately on Watanabe, as he sings one last time before he dies, as if calling to the audience; "Life is brief. Fall in love, maidens." If you didn't cry during this scene, I don't know what to say.
