Ikiru

One night, a man dies on a park swing, cold, alone, and the happiest he's ever been. Ikiru is both a harrowing film and one brimming with hope. Showing both the beautiful sides of life alongside the brutally hurtful truths. It's not only a film that made me think, but one that I have deep respect for, even if I think it shows its age in more ways than one. There are two main themes that I took away from this film. The first is about the limited life we live and how we can make the most of it. Wasting his life working for someone who couldn't care less, Watanabe is filled with regret and sorrow after learning about his stomach cancer, wishing to just end it all and skip the waiting. However, from some chance encounter, he decides to live the rest of his life free from the shackles of his job and his son. First, he tries self-gratification through things like sex, alcohol and gambling. After that fails, he finds Toyo, his upbeat co-worker who he finds enjoyment in being with. He sees in her a love of life and all the small details, and begins to use her for his own self-gratification. She gets tired of it pretty quickly, and he realizes he can't do that to someone else. Finally, he finds the park project, and devotes the rest of his life, not to finding self-gratification, but to helping others and providing even a simple joy. Many people now-a-days go through similar phases of trial and error, trying to find something that will help them feel complete. That will obviously be different for different people, but using your life to bring happiness and joy to others will never disappoint. Bringing something that will bring joy to others, even if it's something small, like a park or a story, is more meaningful than most things you can spend your time on. I believe that creating things you want to see in the world and creating things that you think will not only entertain but carry meaning is a valuable use of my time, so I will pursue that full-force. Your answer may be different, but whatever you do, do something with your life that you won't regret. Do something that will bring joy, happiness, and peace to other people, and you will never look back with regret. The other big theme I see in Ikiru is hope in an increasingly bleak world. During the third act of the film, we see Watanabe's struggle to bring the park to fruition. He tries without relenting to do this simple thing that will being joy to so many people, even when so many people around him are apathetic and care only about their own lives. Despite that, he pushes on. He keeps trying, because to him, this park is the most important thing in the world. It's all he has left, and he wants to use what little time he has left, not to be bitter or harbor resentment to those who are making this difficult, but to just keep pushing forward. During one of these scenes, Watanabe says something that really stuck with me. "I can't afford to hate people. I haven't got that kind of time." This holds true even today. Whether you have 60 years left of 60 days left, nothing good will come from wasting your time by being negative. The world is a beautiful place filled with beautiful people, and if we see it as such, our life won't feel as bleak. Watanabe's actions inspire others to start doing more for others, and that's incredible. We must do what we can to inspire others to do the same. There is, however, a more dismal theme of this movie. That no matter what we do, it will never be enough to make a difference. People will still believe what they want to believe. There will be people who want to do more but just never do for whatever reason. One of the final scenes of the film is of someone at city hall getting a request to do some project or other. After realizing that they're going back to the way things were before Watanabe, the man stands up, as if he's about to do something about it. However, after he gets some odd looks from his co-workers, he slowly sits back down and continues his work. That is depressing. Showing how even if somebody is inspired to do better, to do more, to be a better person and make their life the best they can be, something as simple as a look can shoot that down. No matter what, one life will never be enough. That sounds awfully depressing, and yeah it is, but it shouldn't discourage us from doing our best anyway. It is still our purpose in life to make the most of the little time we have left. To help those around us and to inspire them to do the same. When I said like two lines ago "one life will never be enough?" That's true, yes, but one life can change another, who can change three more, and so on and so forth, until suddenly the world is changing for the better. Just because we alone will never be able to make a difference in the grand scheme of things, doesn't mean people are incapable of changing for the better. Things can change, but things won't change if you don't do your part. I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but I feel it needs to be said once more... We need to do what we can with our finite lives to make the world around us a better place. That starts with kindness and making others happy. Do that, and you'll have no regrets. Be like Watanabe, and be happy, even though we don't have forever.