Listening to this nice piece on the film "Living" and how the author, British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro was inspired by the Akira Kurosawa film "Ikiru," an internationally beloved classic whose title means "To Live."
npr.org/2023/03/06/116…
The piece drops the ball at the end tho, when the narrator says that the film "is not just a remake" and they have a Brit critic that goes "'Ikiru,' by Kurosawa, seems to be a film about Japan, 'Living,' by Ishiguro and his colleagues. seems to me a film about humanity"
Like WTF
What does that mean? Ikiru has been widely regarded as one of the "great films" internationally for decades. It's obviously very universal in its appeal. How is it that "Ikiru" being set in Japan makes it "about Japan" but "Living", being set in the UK, makes it "about humanity"?
This may seem like a little thing to you, but I catch these weirdly xenophobic biases in progressive identifying media all the time. It always gives me whiplash. It's not the end of the world, not a hill to die on, I just want people to be aware of their biases is all. Do better!
It's especially weird cos this assertion that "Living" is more human than "Ikiru" was made by British essayist Pico Iyer, who is famous for writing about multiculturalism, albeit from a very Anglophone (US/UK) perspective--which is what I'm criticizing right now haha.
For context, "Ikiru" has been frequently included on "Greatest Films of All Time" lists for decades. Up there with "Citizen Kane" and "The Seventh Seal" and other pillars of cinema. It's SO STRANGE to hear someone say it's "about Japan" and not about ya know "Life"
And outside of all that critical acclaim, Ikiru is just clearly a wonderful movie. It's beautiful. So very humanistic. Totally holds up today.
Yes Ikiru is very "Japanese" insofar as any good movie is a product of its time and culture. But its story about the drudgery of soul crushing work and the desire to do something meaningful is pretty universal. That's why it's still a classic today!
Anyway, I really wanna see "Living" as well. It sounds lovely (I was a big fan of the film "The Remains of the Day" which was adopted from his novel). Kazuo Ishiguro himself only had good things to say about Ikiru and Kurosawa. Don't mean to throw shade oh him or his work at all.
Also I did not know that "Bill Nighy" was pronounced "Bill Nai." I kept wondering, "Bill Nye? He's in this movie??"
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