I K I R U

"TO LIVE"

Michael Round

September 18, 2009

The film "IKIRU", by Akira Kurosawa, has an interesting beginning:

Narrator:

Cut to the City Hall, the desk of KANJI WATANABE, Chief of the Citizens’ Section.  He sits behind a desk piled high with papers and is busy putting his seal to various documents.  Then he stops and looks at his watch.  Cut to the front of the office, the information desk; a number of women are talking with Sakei, the Section Clerk.  On the desk is the notice: ‘THIS WINDOW IS FOR YOU.  IT IS YOUR LINK WITH THE CITY HALL.  WELCOME BOTH REQUESTS AND COMPLAINTS’.

Women:

And my child got a rash from that water … It smells bad too … There are millions of mosquitoes … Why can’t you do something with the land?  It would make a good playground.

(Sakei excuses himself and goes to Watanabe’s desk, telling him that some petitioners from Kuroe-cho are there.  Watanabe tells him to send them to the Public Works Section, then looks at his watch again.)

Narrator:

Watanabe wants to clean his seal and is looking for some paper.  He opens a desk drawer full of old documents.  The top one reads: ‘A PLAY TO INCREASE OFFICE EFFICIENCY.’ He tears off the first page, cleans his seal, throws the paper into the basket and goes on stamping).

(Cut to the Women from Kuroe-cho arriving at the office of the Public Works Section, where the Clerk in charge says that he is sorry, but this matter comes under the authority of the Parks Section.  Wipe to the Parks Section, where the Clerk is telling them that the matter seems to be concerned with sanitation, hence they had better go to the Health Centre.  Dissolve to the centre, where they are told that the Sanitation Section will take care of them; a lively fugue is built under these scenes, based on a motif from the opening music.  Wipe to the Sanitation Section, where they are told to go to the Environmental Health Section.  Wipe to that section, where they are told they must go to the Anti-Epidemics Office.  Wipe to that office, where a Clerk, hearing it is about mosquitoes, directs them to the Pest Control Section.  Wipe to that section, where a Clerk swats a fly before directing them to the Sewage Section.  Wipe to the Sewage Section, where a Clerk says that theirs was indeed formerly a sewage area but that a road ran over it, so, unless the Road Section approves … Wipe to the Road Section, where they are told that since the City Planning Department’s policy is not yet established, they had best go there first.  Wipe to the Planning Department, where they learn that the Fire Department had wanted the section reclaimed because of such poor water facilities, so they had better go there.  Wipe to the Fire Department, where the Clerk says that it is nonsense, they do not want dirty water, it would ruin their hoses.  Now, if they had a swimming pool of something there, then the Fire Department might be interested.  Wipe to the Children’s Welfare Officer at the Educational Section, who tells them that such a big problem as this should be taken up with the City Councillor.  Wipe to the Councillor’s office.  He is saying that he will give his personal introduction to the Deputy Mayor.  Wipe to the office of that official, who is saying that he is truly happy when citizens take it upon themselves to make such suggestions, and for that reason they have established a special Citizens’ Section.  Wipe back to the Citizens’ Section.  Sakei is again at the desk and does not remember them; he tells them to go to the Public Works Section.  The Women become angry.

Women:

What do you think we are anyway?  What does this sign here mean?  Isn’t it your section’s responsibility?  Don’t worry, we won’t bother you again.

The circular nature of this bureaucratic nightmare reminds me of the works of Escher ... events spiraling - back on themselves.  

But the movie does not focus on this.  Instead, the focus is on a man now faced with death, who trys to discover what it means "to live".

To live!

With meaning!

IKIRU!  TO LIVE!  A movie about breaking free from the rises and falls of a life without meaning ...