Old School - Ikiru

I just finished Ikiru (To Live), the new Akira Kurosawa film I just got on DVD. Wow. Simply amazing. It's depressing, uplifting, pessimistic, optimistic all in one. It is the glorious story of a dying man finding the art of living through existing, acting, and doing what needs to be done.

I'm also really digging Takashi Shimura as an actor. He played the main character in Ikiru, and he was also the Woodcutter in Rashomon and Kambei, the lead samurai in The Seven Samurai . He has more minor roles in several other Kurosawa films like Yojimbo and Kagemusha. I've praised Toshiro Mifune before for being such a physically gifted actor with a wide range of emotions. Shimura, on the other hand, is the master of the quiet, stoic man who lives with honor, dignity, and great expressive eyes. Shimura died in 1982, and I selfishly wish he had lived long enough to be in Kurosawa's 1985 King Lear adaptation, Ran. I think Shimura would have been excellent as Lord Hidetora, the Lear character. Actually, I'd've (hey, a new word invented by yours truly) loved to see Mifune as Hidetora, especially after Hidetora loses his mind. It's too bad that Mifune refused to work with Kurosawa after the fights they had during Red Beard (another Kurosawa film I've yet to see).

This has been your Kurosawa lesson for today. I'm hittin' the hay.