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Modern Film Scripts
Ikiru
This book has soft covers.Ex-library,With usual stamps and markings,In fair condition, suitable as a study copy.
84 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1952
About the author
Akira Kurosawa
62 books217 followers
Rashomon
(1950),
The Seven Samurai
(1954), and
Ran
(1985), set in feudal Japan of director Akira Kurosawa, greatly influenced American and European filmmaking.
This producer, screenwriter, and editor, regarded of the most important and influential in the history of cinema, directed thirty in a career, spanning 57 years.
Following a brief stint as a painter, Kurosawa entered the industry in 1936. After years of working as an assistant and scriptwriter, he made his debut in 1943 during World War II with the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata, also known as Judo Saga. After the war, the critically acclaimed Drunken Angel (1948), in which Kurosawa cast then-unknown actor Toshirō Mifune in a starring role, cemented the reputation of the most important young filmmakers in Japan. The two men went to collaborate on another 15 films.
Rashomon, which premiered in Tokyo in August 1950, and which also starred Mifune, on 10 September 1951 surprisingly won the golden lion at the Venice film festival and was subsequently released in Europe and North America. The commercial and critical success opened up western markets for the first time to the products of the industry, which in turn led to international recognition for other artists. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Kurosawa included a number of highly regarded films, such as Ikiru (1952) and Yojimbo (1961). After the mid-1960s, his much less prolific later work, including his penultimate epic, Kagemusha (1980), continued to win awards, including the Palme d'Or, more often abroad.
In 1990, he accepted the academy award for lifetime achievement. Posthumously, AsianWeek magazine and Cable News Network named him "Asian of the century" in the "arts, literature, and culture" category and cited him as "one of the [five] people who contributed most to the betterment of Asia in the past 100 years."
This producer, screenwriter, and editor, regarded of the most important and influential in the history of cinema, directed thirty in a career, spanning 57 years.
Following a brief stint as a painter, Kurosawa entered the industry in 1936. After years of working as an assistant and scriptwriter, he made his debut in 1943 during World War II with the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata, also known as Judo Saga. After the war, the critically acclaimed Drunken Angel (1948), in which Kurosawa cast then-unknown actor Toshirō Mifune in a starring role, cemented the reputation of the most important young filmmakers in Japan. The two men went to collaborate on another 15 films.
Rashomon, which premiered in Tokyo in August 1950, and which also starred Mifune, on 10 September 1951 surprisingly won the golden lion at the Venice film festival and was subsequently released in Europe and North America. The commercial and critical success opened up western markets for the first time to the products of the industry, which in turn led to international recognition for other artists. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Kurosawa included a number of highly regarded films, such as Ikiru (1952) and Yojimbo (1961). After the mid-1960s, his much less prolific later work, including his penultimate epic, Kagemusha (1980), continued to win awards, including the Palme d'Or, more often abroad.
In 1990, he accepted the academy award for lifetime achievement. Posthumously, AsianWeek magazine and Cable News Network named him "Asian of the century" in the "arts, literature, and culture" category and cited him as "one of the [five] people who contributed most to the betterment of Asia in the past 100 years."
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 26, 2017
فیلم نامه زندگی ، اثر کوراساوا یک مستند فیلم گونه به نظر میاد. واتانابه قهرمان داستان پیرمردی ست که اسیر زندگی یکنواخت و موم گونه ای شده و وقتی به مرگ نزدیک میشه تحولی در اعمال و حتی شغلش مشاهده میکنین . تقابل مسئولیت پذیری و درگیر مسند قدرت شدن ، موضوعات اصلی این کتاب هستند . قول هایی که هر مسئولی در ابتدای قبول یک پست میدهد و فراموشی هایی که از پس آن قول ها مشاهده میشود.
February 26, 2018
"How tragic that man can never realize how beautiful life is until he is face to face with death.''
Kanji Watanabe is a longtime bureaucrat in a city office who, along with the rest of the office, spends his entire working life doing nothing...
Takashi Shimura: Kanji Watanabe
(A review of the film and story...)
Ikiru(生きる, "To Live") is a 1952 Japanese film co-written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film examines the struggles of a minor Tokyo bureaucrat and his final quest for meaning. The film stars Takashi Shimura as Kanji Watanabe.
Ikiru is emotionally effecting and intellectually engaging, and indeed deserves its reputation as a masterpiece regarding world cinema and should be included in any reasonable list of the one hundred greatest films ever made.
Ikiru is about a man who discovers he has a terminal illness, but the movie glosses over his physical suffering, instead focusing on the philosophical implications of his situation. The Japanese word ikiru translates into English as “to live,” and I see the film as being a thought-provoking meditation on what that verb should mean for a human being.
It is addressing life or the purpose of living: Kanji Watanabe, an aging man who works as a section chief at the incredibly bureaucratic Tokyo City Hall. For 30 years he has done little on the job except be present and shuffle papers. He is a lonely widower who is not close to anyone. A narrator tells us in voice-over that Watanabe is "simply passing time without actually living his life." But he soon realizes he has an illness that will kill him within a few months.
One of the things that impresses concerning Ikiru is its unconventional narrative structure. The first hour and a half takes us in a relatively normal encompassing through the Kafkaesque environment at City Hall, a night of debauchery in Tokyo’s vibrant amusement district, and a painful relationship between the dying Watanabe and a vivacious young woman. The film then surprisingly propels five months ahead to Watanabe’s wake, where the rest of the story unfolds like a mystery. We learn in flashbacks what Watanabe did during his last five months and some intriguing details revolving around his demise.
''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.''
In the role of Kanji Watanabe, Takashi Shimura gives one of the most memorable performances by an actor in any film seen. Here Shimura plays an everyday man, and his expressive face and body language perfectly capture the terminally ill bureaucrat. Although to see why they call it acting, watch Seven Samurai, where Shimura portrays Sambei, a powerful warrior who leads the band of heroes that gives the film its title. The roles is a contrast and example on how wonderfully Shimura can change himself into any role.
Kurosawa is famous for his visual style, and it’s the images in Ikiru that remain: A jammed dance floor in a nightclub filled with a sea of dancers swaying to Latin music; Watanabe watching a toy bunny hop across a tea-room table; the face of a City Hall bureaucrat disappearing behind stacks of paperwork. Indeed, one of the most moving scenes in all of cinema is the one near the film’s end where Watanabe, alone in a small playground, swings to and fro amidst gently falling snow, softly singing “Life Is Brief.”
One of the film's best qualities is the superb direction by Akira Kurosawa. It is mesmerising that Kurosawa was able to make the character of Kanji, a bureaucratic paper-pusher the most well developed, interesting character in the story. That is not to say that all of the other characters in the movie are underdeveloped. Every role in this movie is expertly defined. Also, Kurosawa's revolutionary pacing makes the 140 minute runtime fly by, leaving the audience begging for more.
The cinematography by Asakazu Nakai is outstanding. Every shot in this movie is so well composed that any one of them could very easily be framed and displayed in a museum. Nakai's usage of lighting techniques and deep focus as methods of foreshadowing is unparalleled.
There is a strong anti-bureaucracy message in the film's underlining storytelling. In fact, this subtext later became the basis for one of the themes in Terry Gilliam's Brazil. In Ikiru, this sentiment is tragic as the poor people of Kuroe's petition for a park gets passed around from department to department after each employee decides that it is not their problem. Kanji is easily assimilated into the role of the hero when he makes the plight of the residents of Kuroe his personal mission and stops at nothing to see that the park is built.
Ikiru is one of the greatest films ever made. This is one of those experiences where there is not a single wasted moment or scene. Ikiru is as life-affirming, and equally as memorable as Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. This film also shows that, while he is most popular for his masterful samurai epics, Kurosawa's entire body of work demands attention. Ikiru is one of his best achievements in film and an affirmed favourite for me.
Even upon first viewing Ikiru is easy to understand and yet it is not easy to understand; It is simply open to more than one interpretation. The ending is in some ways bleak: It looks as though Watanabe had no lasting impact on City Hall and before long he will be forgotten. Yet on the other hand, one poor Tokyo neighbourhood is given hope and a new lease of life because of his efforts.
The most important idea in the film is that Watanabe did manage to do something meaningful after his mortality's end is known, and it was only during this time that he could actually be said to live. He is alive. Watanabe has finally lived.
''Life is so short...Fall in love, dear maiden...While your lips are still red...And before you are cold...For there will be no tomorrow.''
Kanji Watanabe is a longtime bureaucrat in a city office who, along with the rest of the office, spends his entire working life doing nothing...
Takashi Shimura: Kanji Watanabe
(A review of the film and story...)
Ikiru(生きる, "To Live") is a 1952 Japanese film co-written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film examines the struggles of a minor Tokyo bureaucrat and his final quest for meaning. The film stars Takashi Shimura as Kanji Watanabe.
Ikiru is emotionally effecting and intellectually engaging, and indeed deserves its reputation as a masterpiece regarding world cinema and should be included in any reasonable list of the one hundred greatest films ever made.
Ikiru is about a man who discovers he has a terminal illness, but the movie glosses over his physical suffering, instead focusing on the philosophical implications of his situation. The Japanese word ikiru translates into English as “to live,” and I see the film as being a thought-provoking meditation on what that verb should mean for a human being.
It is addressing life or the purpose of living: Kanji Watanabe, an aging man who works as a section chief at the incredibly bureaucratic Tokyo City Hall. For 30 years he has done little on the job except be present and shuffle papers. He is a lonely widower who is not close to anyone. A narrator tells us in voice-over that Watanabe is "simply passing time without actually living his life." But he soon realizes he has an illness that will kill him within a few months.
One of the things that impresses concerning Ikiru is its unconventional narrative structure. The first hour and a half takes us in a relatively normal encompassing through the Kafkaesque environment at City Hall, a night of debauchery in Tokyo’s vibrant amusement district, and a painful relationship between the dying Watanabe and a vivacious young woman. The film then surprisingly propels five months ahead to Watanabe’s wake, where the rest of the story unfolds like a mystery. We learn in flashbacks what Watanabe did during his last five months and some intriguing details revolving around his demise.
''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.''
In the role of Kanji Watanabe, Takashi Shimura gives one of the most memorable performances by an actor in any film seen. Here Shimura plays an everyday man, and his expressive face and body language perfectly capture the terminally ill bureaucrat. Although to see why they call it acting, watch Seven Samurai, where Shimura portrays Sambei, a powerful warrior who leads the band of heroes that gives the film its title. The roles is a contrast and example on how wonderfully Shimura can change himself into any role.
Kurosawa is famous for his visual style, and it’s the images in Ikiru that remain: A jammed dance floor in a nightclub filled with a sea of dancers swaying to Latin music; Watanabe watching a toy bunny hop across a tea-room table; the face of a City Hall bureaucrat disappearing behind stacks of paperwork. Indeed, one of the most moving scenes in all of cinema is the one near the film’s end where Watanabe, alone in a small playground, swings to and fro amidst gently falling snow, softly singing “Life Is Brief.”
One of the film's best qualities is the superb direction by Akira Kurosawa. It is mesmerising that Kurosawa was able to make the character of Kanji, a bureaucratic paper-pusher the most well developed, interesting character in the story. That is not to say that all of the other characters in the movie are underdeveloped. Every role in this movie is expertly defined. Also, Kurosawa's revolutionary pacing makes the 140 minute runtime fly by, leaving the audience begging for more.
The cinematography by Asakazu Nakai is outstanding. Every shot in this movie is so well composed that any one of them could very easily be framed and displayed in a museum. Nakai's usage of lighting techniques and deep focus as methods of foreshadowing is unparalleled.
There is a strong anti-bureaucracy message in the film's underlining storytelling. In fact, this subtext later became the basis for one of the themes in Terry Gilliam's Brazil. In Ikiru, this sentiment is tragic as the poor people of Kuroe's petition for a park gets passed around from department to department after each employee decides that it is not their problem. Kanji is easily assimilated into the role of the hero when he makes the plight of the residents of Kuroe his personal mission and stops at nothing to see that the park is built.
Ikiru is one of the greatest films ever made. This is one of those experiences where there is not a single wasted moment or scene. Ikiru is as life-affirming, and equally as memorable as Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. This film also shows that, while he is most popular for his masterful samurai epics, Kurosawa's entire body of work demands attention. Ikiru is one of his best achievements in film and an affirmed favourite for me.
Even upon first viewing Ikiru is easy to understand and yet it is not easy to understand; It is simply open to more than one interpretation. The ending is in some ways bleak: It looks as though Watanabe had no lasting impact on City Hall and before long he will be forgotten. Yet on the other hand, one poor Tokyo neighbourhood is given hope and a new lease of life because of his efforts.
The most important idea in the film is that Watanabe did manage to do something meaningful after his mortality's end is known, and it was only during this time that he could actually be said to live. He is alive. Watanabe has finally lived.
''Life is so short...Fall in love, dear maiden...While your lips are still red...And before you are cold...For there will be no tomorrow.''
March 25, 2023
Living written by Kazuo Ishiguro, based on the film Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa, creator of The Seven Samurai http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/08/s... and other classics
10 out of 10
Living is one of the best films of 2022, and not just that, it is one of the most fabulous I have seen in years, due to the script written by Nobel Prize Winner Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Remains of The Day http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/12/n... and a number of other grand works, who based the screenplay for this marvelous film on Ikiru, by Akira Kurosawa…
Since there is no entry for Living, but we have the chance to comment on Ikiru, this will be dedicated to the film in awe to the film that has two Oscar nominations, for Bill Nighy for Best Actor in a Leading Role, for Kazuo Ishiguro for Best Adapted Screenplay, and it has collected a good number of other trophies and nominations, for BAFTAs, Golden Globe, for what is an impressive, magical narrative…
Bill Nighy is a Magister Ludi in the role of Mr. Williams, someone who seems to come out of Franz Kafka http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/t... for the first part of the motion picture, when we see him in charge of an office with bureaucratic activity, where permits are issued, or, more often than not, denied on the basis of various, flimsy objections and outdated rules…
Indeed, petitioners are moved from one floor to another, various clerks insist they have to speak to another department ‘This is for Parks’ and never admit the requests in their office, unless they do that, placing the demands within big piles of papers, clearly other petitions from the population, which would just stay there neglected…one had to make sure that the pile of documents is tall enough…
Peter Wakeling is new in the office run by Mr. Williams and he is initiated in the rituals of the group, they all start at the train station, they share the same compartment, show respect and deference to the inflexible, serious, rigid boss, who takes the same train at another station and does not share the compartment with his underlings…
At their destination, the colleagues keep Peter Wakeling from moving too fast in the footsteps of the leader, they have to allow for a good few seconds to follow the Big Man, and when they reach the office, some women come with a request for a Playground to be allowed, designed and eventually built on a site that has wreckage from World War II, this is a story that takes place in the wake of that catastrophic conflagration…
The petitioners are sent to spend (actually waste) a lot of their time within this Kafkaesque http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/02/t... institution, where they all have the priority of playing ping pong with the public – something we are so used with in this realm, especially in the days of Ceausescu, when the bureaucrats would be hostile and nothing could be done, expect hymns for the Dear Leader
This is where I have to boast – well, not really, but there is this urge, and then the comfort of knowing the benefits of being a rather modest ‘reviewer’, it is not as if more than a few humans will read this, but I have high hopes for the future masters of the earth, artificial intelligence, those that will read half the literature of the world in seconds – about my (small, but honorable) role in the overthrow of Ceausescu
http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... this is the link to the Newsweek article that mentions my participation in the Revolution that led to the execution of the tyrant (in itself, condemned as a pure act of revenge, for the lawyer that the couple had, instead of defending his ‘clients’ pronounced a tirade against…them, and the shooting followed what was described as kangaroo trial, no matter how guilty the two had been, it has to be proved in court) something I will always be proud of, and boast of it, even when no one is listening, it is in writing, right?
Dostoyevsky has been condemned to death, and he had three minutes left in front of the firing squad (clearly, I am in a morbid mood this morning…actually, it was some days ago, for this is now continued on March 11, 2023, if there is any need to keep a straight record for the exact time when these paramount pronouncements have been recorded) which he divided into three, what else, with one to look back at his life, another to say goodbye to friends and family and then finally, to look at a ray of sunshine falling on a church tower…
He is absolved and then writes about the last moments of such a character, facing death, and the way he would rather live on a bare rock, in the middle of the ocean, instead of ending it all, and the message is similar to what we have in Living, we need to look at life and cherish the moments Happiness Activity No 9: Savoring Life’s Joys-paying close attention, taking delight in life’s momentary pleasures and wonders, through thinking, writing, drawing or sharing with another as it is explained in the life-changing book The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/01/f...
Living is a marvelous motion picture, which will invite audiences to examine their lives, have they been sailing through them just like Mr. Williams before his epiphany, when confronted with the final exit, and what are the measures they need to take…Flow will be the element to bring into their lives, meaning, which will be explained in http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/m... and some decisions will be required, Carpe Diem, Eudaimonia, and for more, well, just ask me, I seem to know and here is proof of that http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u...
10 out of 10
Living is one of the best films of 2022, and not just that, it is one of the most fabulous I have seen in years, due to the script written by Nobel Prize Winner Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Remains of The Day http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/12/n... and a number of other grand works, who based the screenplay for this marvelous film on Ikiru, by Akira Kurosawa…
Since there is no entry for Living, but we have the chance to comment on Ikiru, this will be dedicated to the film in awe to the film that has two Oscar nominations, for Bill Nighy for Best Actor in a Leading Role, for Kazuo Ishiguro for Best Adapted Screenplay, and it has collected a good number of other trophies and nominations, for BAFTAs, Golden Globe, for what is an impressive, magical narrative…
Bill Nighy is a Magister Ludi in the role of Mr. Williams, someone who seems to come out of Franz Kafka http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/t... for the first part of the motion picture, when we see him in charge of an office with bureaucratic activity, where permits are issued, or, more often than not, denied on the basis of various, flimsy objections and outdated rules…
Indeed, petitioners are moved from one floor to another, various clerks insist they have to speak to another department ‘This is for Parks’ and never admit the requests in their office, unless they do that, placing the demands within big piles of papers, clearly other petitions from the population, which would just stay there neglected…one had to make sure that the pile of documents is tall enough…
Peter Wakeling is new in the office run by Mr. Williams and he is initiated in the rituals of the group, they all start at the train station, they share the same compartment, show respect and deference to the inflexible, serious, rigid boss, who takes the same train at another station and does not share the compartment with his underlings…
At their destination, the colleagues keep Peter Wakeling from moving too fast in the footsteps of the leader, they have to allow for a good few seconds to follow the Big Man, and when they reach the office, some women come with a request for a Playground to be allowed, designed and eventually built on a site that has wreckage from World War II, this is a story that takes place in the wake of that catastrophic conflagration…
The petitioners are sent to spend (actually waste) a lot of their time within this Kafkaesque http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/02/t... institution, where they all have the priority of playing ping pong with the public – something we are so used with in this realm, especially in the days of Ceausescu, when the bureaucrats would be hostile and nothing could be done, expect hymns for the Dear Leader
This is where I have to boast – well, not really, but there is this urge, and then the comfort of knowing the benefits of being a rather modest ‘reviewer’, it is not as if more than a few humans will read this, but I have high hopes for the future masters of the earth, artificial intelligence, those that will read half the literature of the world in seconds – about my (small, but honorable) role in the overthrow of Ceausescu
http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... this is the link to the Newsweek article that mentions my participation in the Revolution that led to the execution of the tyrant (in itself, condemned as a pure act of revenge, for the lawyer that the couple had, instead of defending his ‘clients’ pronounced a tirade against…them, and the shooting followed what was described as kangaroo trial, no matter how guilty the two had been, it has to be proved in court) something I will always be proud of, and boast of it, even when no one is listening, it is in writing, right?
Dostoyevsky has been condemned to death, and he had three minutes left in front of the firing squad (clearly, I am in a morbid mood this morning…actually, it was some days ago, for this is now continued on March 11, 2023, if there is any need to keep a straight record for the exact time when these paramount pronouncements have been recorded) which he divided into three, what else, with one to look back at his life, another to say goodbye to friends and family and then finally, to look at a ray of sunshine falling on a church tower…
He is absolved and then writes about the last moments of such a character, facing death, and the way he would rather live on a bare rock, in the middle of the ocean, instead of ending it all, and the message is similar to what we have in Living, we need to look at life and cherish the moments Happiness Activity No 9: Savoring Life’s Joys-paying close attention, taking delight in life’s momentary pleasures and wonders, through thinking, writing, drawing or sharing with another as it is explained in the life-changing book The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/01/f...
Living is a marvelous motion picture, which will invite audiences to examine their lives, have they been sailing through them just like Mr. Williams before his epiphany, when confronted with the final exit, and what are the measures they need to take…Flow will be the element to bring into their lives, meaning, which will be explained in http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/m... and some decisions will be required, Carpe Diem, Eudaimonia, and for more, well, just ask me, I seem to know and here is proof of that http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u...
June 4, 2019
At first, I was going to give it four stars for the five month time skip in the middle, but it worked out beautifully as the readers learn what the 'hero' did through a series of flashbacks from other characters.
However, my rating is not indicative of my opinion of the movie. Why? Because the movie (at least the one I found on YouTube) had poor audio and cinematography. I was also not appreciative of Shimura's acting (especially when he sings "Life is Short" or Gondola no Uta the first time).
But all in all, it's a fine screenplay that allows one to ponder a question that truly matters: how to live.
However, my rating is not indicative of my opinion of the movie. Why? Because the movie (at least the one I found on YouTube) had poor audio and cinematography. I was also not appreciative of Shimura's acting (especially when he sings "Life is Short" or Gondola no Uta the first time).
But all in all, it's a fine screenplay that allows one to ponder a question that truly matters: how to live.
October 11, 2008
معنای ��یستن
February 6, 2013
Great film. Probably Kurosawa's best. The life of a humble civil servant.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews