Many years ago, quite by chance, I was lucky enough to see the Japanese film ‘Ikiru’ (“To Live”). It centres on the life of a terminally ill Tokyo bureaucrat – what will he choose to do with the life he has left?
I have never forgotten the impact of this film and was reminded of its greatness again when I saw that there is a new adaptation, the events now transposed to post-war London.
It is a film less about death than about the possibility of rebirth. Can a life lived one way suddenly be lived another? In this respect, it reminds me of the brilliant German film ‘The Lives of Others.’
The corrosive effects of bureaucracy on the human soul, the futility of so much of our activity. What is the antidote?
The clip below describes how notions of ‘Englishness’ fit into the context of the new film. One to watch!
