Rating: 
Summary: Living
Review: This film is perhaps the most powerful message of Kurosawa's career... and the greatest film of all time. The presentation is structured as ponderous., so that the audience may view Watanabe as though they knew him, and his life is a testament to humanity. We become his friends, his charges, his disciples, and we take his message- to live- with us, and become more aware. Brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: Sticks with me over time
Review: If you are like me and feel frequently that your work has little meaning in the grand scheme of things, that you aren't sure what sort of impact you are having on the world, that you could do more, here then is a film to drive you to excellence. I see myself in the lead character, slowly becoming a mindless "mummy". It seems to tell the same story as Bergman's Wild Strawberries, in a different light. It examines a person's reaction to imminent death, what a person holds on to (perhaps takes with him/her). It details a wake-up call for a person who has lived life without feeling for far too long. If you see one Kurosawa film, see this one.
Rating:
Summary: Right on target
Review: I am a JET, an American teaching English in Japan through the Japanese Exchange Teaching Program, and I have to spend one day a week at the Board of Education in the Town Hall. Although this particular town hall has a MUCH more sinister feel to it, the main part of the scene remains in tact. If you want to get a view into the inner workings of Japanese governmental society and a man, who could realistically be any number of government employees in Japan, bereft of spirit that has been stripped of him I suggest you buy this movie. You will not regret it unless you have a tremendous lack of patience or humanity. Probably the most moving movie I have ever seen!
Rating:
Summary: 6 Stars
Review: The power of this film - the word "movie" doesn't do it justice - cannot be overestimated. It comes as close as the medium possibly can to capturing the existential despair one surely feels upon realizing that he has lived his life in vain. But it does so much more.... This is the kind of film that sticks in your mind long after experiencing it. I say "experiencing" it on purpose, because after you've seen it you'll feel it. You'll need a breather. Pour a glass of wine, have a cigarette, sit back and relax...and rejoice that you've just witnessed the essence of the human condition captured on film.
Rating:
Summary: TO DIE ONLY TO LIVE AGAIN
Review: Mr. Watanabe is a thirty year bureaucratic civil servant. Day in and day out, he stamps documents, says nothing, comes home and lives a lackluster existence. Our narrator tells us this man is dead even though his body goes through the motions of physical existence. Months later our hero is informed about him having ulcers (code name for cancer). Doctors give him only six months to live. For the first time in his thirty-years, our hero decides to seek out how to live since he hasn't done it before. So he gambles, gets drunk, goes out with women and dances but finds that life empty. He tries to speak with his son who tunes him out. He runs after his young co-worker whose youth and vibrance motivates but even she hasn't the answers. The answer he seeks is meaning for a life that hasn't been lived. It took the spector of death to force him to finally decide how to live the few remaining breathes that he has left. Takashi Shimura does an outstanding job in playing our lead character. His quest is our quest as we live meaningless lives. The people he encounters, the situations he finds himself in and his final awakening is a wake up call for all of us. This masterpiece is moving and burning with feeling. The question we face is whether or not we will live. A video of this caliber of artistic workmanship is a classic to be viewed by everyone. It made me think about how to live my own life and it will do the same for you.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: The philosophical struggle for meaning in life, was captured in this film.It is simply one the most "human" stories of all time.
Rating:
Summary: DVD
Review: This is one of the finest, most touchingly beautiful films ever made and needs to be put on digital format so that new generations can watch it and it is not lost in the sea of time.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps Akira Kurosawa's finest film.
Review: One warning, from the beginning, this film is slow. This is not an action film, if you want that, rent Die Hard. However, this is perhaps one of the most touching films I have ever seen. I love Akira Kurosawa, but this is his only film that brought me to tears...big sloppy sobs etc. A story about life, and how it can be wasted, this is one of the most vivid films I have ever viewed, and it really hits home to me. If you want a film that will really challenge you, and how you have been spending your life, pick this one up today. Technically, the film is a masterpiece. Kurosawa heightens the mood with his bleak imagery and long takes...this may be one of the finer examples of Kurosawa's camera genius. Somehow his films are always so unique, so different in their cinematography from any contemporary works, that they stick in my mind long after I have finished viewing them. As much as I love his samurai epics, this may well be my very favorite Kurosawa film, and I believe it has really been overlooked. Don't waste a minute, buy or rent this one today, and see if you don't end up agreeing with me.
Rating:
Summary: Grand and inspiring
Review: This is one o the greatest films ever made. I disagree with Leonard Maltin's review that finds the film "depressing". It is a portrait of one man's quest for meaning in a world of impending death. We all shall shuffle off this mortal coil someday, and to find meaning in life is to find a way beyond death. Wantanabe is able to be reborn (yes, it brings tears to my eyes too), and find his purpose in life in spite of having a death sentence of cancer over his head. We take the journey with him, from anger to confusion to dispair through rebirth. Of course, Kurasowa cannot resist the urge to throw a final twist of irony in at the end and show his attitude towards burocracy. It is a film that should be shown in every course about death and dying or used in grief therapy groups. A wonderful film.
Rating:
Summary: Five stars redux
Review: I really didn't want to do this. Posting two reviews is really klutzy and gauche. But I kept seeing my January 21 review on my member page with something missing, and it just bothered me too much. Here's the sentence: "What can you say about a movie whose opening shot is a stomach X-ray?" Even I have to say, what's the big deal about that? But that was only half of what I intended to say -- the weaker half. Here is what I wanted to say: What can you say about a movie whose opening shot is a stomach X-ray, and whose hero is DEAD when the movie is only HALF OVER? Thank you. I needed to say that.
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