2/7/23 - Living (2022) - 5/10

Just watch Ikiru. It is a literal retelling, with most of it being beat for beat, but less engaging. It is weighed down with stuffy English boredom punctuated by genuine affecting moments.

It is impossible for me to shake the Ikiru shadow. Whole of Ikiru felt like a parable, broad but full, while this felt like a clutched to the chest whisper about a depressed elderly man. It transposed Japanese reservedness for early 20th century British austerity, and I can’t say that it worked for me.

Emphasizing a stylized put upon vibe, with time and cultural repression, it was a dreary cinematic genuflection. It’s supposed to be subtle but it drifts into dull stodginess. An implosion in politeness, which is supposed to be the burning heart at the center that lights the edges for future change, but as opposed to the original, just doesn’t have the intended pop for me.

Nighy, which is what this entire film is for, did a fine job with his stuffy soul-crushed downtrodden aloofness, but I can’t say that it riveted me and certainly wasn’t the bold and expressive performance of Takashi Shimura.