Response to Japanese Movie "Ikiru"

Live a Meaningful Life

By: Natalina (Sogang University)

After watching Japanese movie named Ikiru my mind was opened to know more about how to live a meaningful life. Even though it was a little boring at the first scene, with the black and white screen, with more emotional and pathetic feeling, but it has strong message. The movie tells a story that life is limited and only temporary, and how this short of life not to be wasted. There are several points that moved me to appreciate more my life in this universe. 

First, the movie teaches me that it is not too late to do something even if you have only few months to live. As shown on the first part of the movie where the main character Watanabe's life before and after, he was told that he has stomach cancer, and has only three months to live. He realized that he has never really lived. Then he started to find something more fun by spending his pleasure life. 

Second, when Watanabe said “I don’t have time to be angry”. It suddenly brings me that there is only time to love and admire. In light of this purpose, anger is pettiness. Since I know, of course we all do, that life is beautiful but it is only temporary. Therefore, at least do good things more rather than the bad thing. As human being, we have all the emotions, such as angry, happy, thankful, sad, etc. However, it is better to be happy all the time, to be thankful for what we got in our lives, or later we will regret. 

While I was thinking about what I have got from the movie, I happened to remember the day when I was in middle school, where one of my professors who taught Religion subject told us to not afraid of death, because death is going to come to everybody, so the best thing is just live your life in a way you like and you could. When I think about the death, I am, sometimes, scared. I’m not scared of death itself, but I’m scared if there’s something that I could’t do before the death is coming and take me. What I wish is that, I want to achieve what I want in my life, which is I called the main or important one, which could make people who I love and everybody around me feel happy and satisfy. I want them to stay calm, without tears, without the most sadness which people ever felt, feeling grief when my day come where I have to sleep forever.

Ikiru is a Japanese movie directed by Akira Kurosawa.

It was released by Toho in Japan on October 9, 1952

This movie really makes me thinks over and over again about what my life is going to be? What is going to happen to me? When and how the death is coming and taking me with him? I was always thinking and believing that I’m going to die of natural causes like old age, and maybe most people do the same as I do. However, when this movie was seeing by me, I was told that, the reality is that death comes to us young or old, healthy or sick, and suddenly my mind said “Natha. Life is a mystery. You can think, and guess your future, but you will never know the real of your future”, and I stopped. 

Overall, even though the movie is in a black and white screen, but the movie is effective and has a strong message. Cancer has taught people that life cannot be taken for granted. I believe that no one should take life for granted nor the people around you. Nobody knows when death will come knocking on your door and life is too precious, so live life to the fullest. You simply have to be a human and posses a desire to live a meaningful life. The film informs us that Watanabe thrashing his way through empty efforts to live, to find some meaning to his life. At the end of the movie’s first half, he finally sees something that opens his eyes to how he must spend his remaining days. Sometimes I think that Ikiru makes me wonder why I trudge along in my everyday life, and what would I do or say if I was told that I only have months to live and why would I wait for news like that to start living my life?