A classic

It had been ages since I saw a movie directed by Akira Kurosawa so I was really eager to check this flick, especially since it is considered as one of his best movies. Well, even though I did like it, in my opinion, it turned out to be one of his most difficult movies to grasp. It is not that it was really complicated, it was more that I’m not sure if I fully understood what Kurosawa was trying to achieve here. The best I can come up with was that we should all live as if today is going to be our last day on Earth but, eventually, very few people actually do it. Eventually, as a result, even though Takashi Shimura delivered a very strong performance, the other characters turned out to be actually more interesting. Indeed, even though we all wish to be like Kanji Watanabe, in fact, we act more like the other characters who are most of the time rather oblivious regarding Watanabe’s actions. The best example would be the final act taking place after his death during his wake. Eventually, it is one of these movies that I enjoyed more afterwards then when I was actually watching the damned thing but I should definitely re-watch it at some point. Anyway, to conclude, even though I didn’t completely blow me away, it was pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Akira Kurosawa’s work.