Takashi Shimura does a stellar job with a rare leading role in Akira Kurosawa’s captivating melodrama IKIRU
IKIRU (TO LIVE) (DOOMED) (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
Metrograph
7 Ludlow St. between Canal & Hester Sts.
Tuesday, September 6, 1:30 & 7:30
Series continues through September 8
212-660-0312
metrograph.com
In Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 gem, Ikiru, the great Takashi Shimura is outstanding as simple-minded petty bureaucrat Kanji Watanabe, a paper-pushing section chief who has not taken a day off in thirty years. But when he suddenly finds out that he is dying of stomach cancer, he finally decides that there might be more to life than he thought after meeting up with an oddball novelist (Yunosuke Ito). While his son, Mitsuo (Nobuo Kaneko), and coworkers wonder just what is going on with him — he has chosen not to tell anyone about his illness — he begins cavorting with Kimura (Shinichi Himori), a young woman filled with a zest for life. Although the plot sounds somewhat predictable, Kurosawa’s intuitive direction, a smart script (co-written with Hideo Oguni), and a marvelously slow-paced performance by Shimura (Stray Dog, Scandal, Seven Samurai) make this one of the director’s best melodramas. Winner of a special prize at the 1954 Berlin International Film Festival, Ikiru is screening September 6 as part of Metrograph’s “Kurosawa x 11” series, which continues through September 8 with such other treats as Hidden Fortress, Red Beard, and The Bad Sleep Well.