It's not perfect, but any movie that leaves you sitting speechless, that makes you cry, deserves your appreciation. Ikiru is that film.
Don't want to go too much into plot details but thematically Ikiru has a lot to say about what is to live a fulfilling life (ikiru is the verb 'To Live' in japanese) and finding one's purpose on life. Its also an indictment of bureaucratic procedure, how one can get swept up in the 'cog'. For example, essentially…
A gut wrenching, true to life story, about a family torn apart by military rule. Unlike other South American nations, my understanding is that Brazil has shown more amnesty towards the perpetrators of the military dictatorships of the past for one reason or another, whether it's because they were less savage (Over 30,000 killed in Argentina, compared with 434 in Brazil - Economist) or because its seen as a necessary tribulation on the road to democracy or for other reasons.…
Scorsese's last word on the gangster film is an epic finale and an obituary for the 'Frank Sheeran' type of mob men in American society. By the end of the film the Irishman, has nothing and no one, and while he's never imprisoned for the worst crime, his loneliness and irrelevance to society is his punishment. Most gangster movies leave their antiheroes winning before closing the door. Yes even our favourite Scorsese mob associate Henry Hill, who got a lovely…
