Existentialism in Ikiru; Sudden Realization of Impermenence

The movie Ikiru follows the last days of a rather uptight man named Watanabe who spent most of his adult life working at a boring desk job. His realization that he has less than a year to live shakes him out of the stupor of everyday life; at first he despairs over his cancer, then he tries to forget it by living a carefree life off of his savings. Both of these options turn out poorly for him; neither in despair nor pleasure can he find an escape. The "absurdity" of life mentioned by Sartre and other existential thinkers still strikes him, filling him with anxiety and emptiness.

Most existential writers subscribe to the notion that the world has no underlying meaning; from this seemingly empty world (devoid of objective truth, etc.) we are forced to either flee into "The They" (which basically means society as a whole, although it is not something that is separate even from the individual, however confusing that seems) as Heidegger says, or acknowledge the apparent meaninglessness and grasp onto a purpose for ourselves, which is what Watanabe eventually does.

Some of the most interesting scenes are from Watanabe's attempted escapes. As he wanders throughout stores and bars trying to grasp some sort of comfort, he sings in one of the most famous scenes of the movie. Ikiru deals heavily with the idea of impermanence, which shows ties to Buddhism as well as Existentialism. Nothing seems to have worth or substance; everything fades away, as he makes clear in his song. In the end, Watanabe finds meaning in a project that seemingly has no chance of happening; he helps a group of concerned community women build a park that is safe for their children to play in. While this doesn't seem like a lot, the bureaucracy in Watanabe's office was such that only a determined individual could have helped the women (and his associates had no intention of going out of their way to create a safe area for children.

Overall, Ikiru is a very thought-provoking film; it was produced in 1952, and is dubbed in Japanese with English subtitles. The quality of the video, while decent for the time, is quite outdated; still, I would recommend checking it out if you have any interest in this post. Feel free to comment... since none of us have a choice...