Ikiru 4K 1952 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

The old man learns that he doesn’t have long to live and decides that a playground on the site of a foul-smelling vacant lot is what he will leave behind for the world. Alternately insisting and demanding, then pleading and humbling himself, he navigates all the circles of bureaucratic hell to gather the necessary signatures, resolutions, and stamps.

Review 4K Movie

Very often, we only begin to appreciate something once we’ve lost it. That’s exactly what happens to the film’s protagonist—he truly begins to appreciate life only when he finds himself on the brink of death. He was diagnosed with stomach cancer and had only a few months left to live. He looked back on his life and felt very sad: he hadn’t planted a tree or built a house, and although he had raised a son, their relationship wasn’t the best—his son was actually waiting for his father to die so he could claim his inheritance. So our hero turned to drinking—it was very hard for him to face the world while sober. He would probably have spent the rest of his days that way, had it not been for his encounter with a young woman who loved life deeply. The time he spent with her stirred a very warm feeling in his heart. Not love—no. More precisely, it was love, but not for her, rather for life itself. He, too, wanted to savor every moment, to feel joy and sorrow, to help others, and to do something meaningful. And he decided that he would live out the time allotted to him by fate in a different way. He would live…

Akira Kurosawa makes great films. He knows how to present a story as old as time in a fresh way. As a result, his films—despite their age—still look fantastic today. Moreover, it’s fascinating to spot techniques in his films that other directors would later adopt—Darren Aronofsky clearly watched Kurosawa’s films and drew inspiration from them. For example, in *The Fountain*, there’s a scene where Hugh Jackman’s character walks down the street, lost in thought, and there’s not a sound to be heard around him. This lasts for a few seconds, and then he’s nearly hit by a car. At that very moment, the sounds “kick in”: the noise of cars, people’s voices, and so on. Or, in his film *Requiem for a Dream*, there’s a scene where Ellen Burstyn’s character walks down the street at a slightly slower pace, while everything else around her (people, cars) moves, so to speak, in fast motion. There are similar scenes in "Ikiru".

It was interesting to see how the director portrayed the bureaucratic system of that time. More than fifty years have passed, yet essentially nothing has changed—whether it’s mid-20th-century Japan or our country today.