Living written by Kazuo Ishiguro, based on the film Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa, creator of The Seven Samurai http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/08/seven-samurai-written-and-directed-by.html and other classics - 10 out of 10

 

Living written by Kazuo Ishiguro, based on the film Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa, creator of The Seven Samurai http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/08/seven-samurai-written-and-directed-by.html and other classics

10 out of 10

 

 

Living is one of the best films of 2022, and not just that, it is one of the most fabulous I have seen in years, due to the script written by Nobel Prize Winner Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Remains of The Day http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/12/note-on-remains-of-day-by-kazuo-ishiguro.html and a number of other grand works, who based the screenplay for this marvelous film on Ikiru, by Akira Kurosawa…

 

Since there is no entry for Living, but we have the chance to comment on Ikiru, this will be dedicated to the film in awe to the film that has two Oscar nominations, for Bill Nighy for Best Actor in a Leading Role, for Kazuo Ishiguro for Best Adapted Screenplay, and it has collected a good number of other trophies and nominations, for BAFTAs, Golden Globe, for what is an impressive, magical narrative…

Bill Nighy is a Magister Ludi in the role of Mr. Williams, someone who seems to come out of Franz Kafka http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-process-adapted-from-franz-kafka-by.html for the first part of the motion picture, when we see him in charge of an office with bureaucratic activity, where permits are issued, or, more often than not, denied on the basis of various, flimsy objections and outdated rules…

 

Indeed, petitioners are moved from one floor to another, various clerks insist they have to speak to another department ‘This is for Parks’ and never admit the requests in their office, unless they do that, placing the demands within big piles of papers, clearly other petitions from the population, which would just stay there neglected…one had to make sure that the pile of documents is tall enough…

Peter Wakeling is new in the office run by Mr. Williams and he is initiated in the rituals of the group, they all start at the train station, they share the same compartment, show respect and deference to the inflexible, serious, rigid boss, who takes the same train at another station and does not share the compartment with his underlings…

 

At their destination, the colleagues keep Peter Wakeling from moving too fast in the footsteps of the leader, they have to allow for a good few seconds to follow the Big Man, and when they reach the office, some women come with a request for a Playground to be allowed, designed and eventually built on a site that has wreckage from World War II, this is a story that takes place in the wake of that catastrophic conflagration…

 

The petitioners are sent to spend (actually waste) a lot of their time within this Kafkaesque http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-castle-by-franz-kafka.html institution, where they all have the priority of playing ping pong with the public – something we are so used with in this realm, especially in the days of Ceausescu, when the bureaucrats would be hostile and nothing could be done, expect hymns for the Dear Leader

This is where I have to boast – well, not really, but there is this urge, and then the comfort of knowing the benefits of being a rather modest ‘reviewer’, it is not as if more than a few humans will read this, but I have high hopes for the future masters of the earth, artificial intelligence, those that will read half the literature of the world in seconds – about my (small, but honorable) role in the overthrow of Ceausescu

 

http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html this is the link to the Newsweek article that mentions my participation in the Revolution that led to the execution of the tyrant (in itself, condemned as a pure act of revenge, for the lawyer that the couple had, instead of defending his ‘clients’ pronounced a tirade against…them, and the shooting followed what was described as kangaroo trial, no matter how guilty the two had been, it has to be proved in court) something I will always be proud of, and boast of it, even when no one is listening, it is in writing, right?

Dostoyevsky has been condemned to death, and he had three minutes left in front of the firing squad (clearly, I am in a morbid mood this morning…actually, it was some days ago, for this is now continued on March 11, 2023, if there is any need to keep a straight record for the exact time when these paramount pronouncements have been recorded) which he divided into three, what else, with one to look back at his life, another to say goodbye to friends and family and then finally, to look at a ray of sunshine falling on a church tower…

 

He is absolved and then writes about the last moments of such a character, facing death, and the way he would rather live on a bare rock, in the middle of the ocean, instead of ending it all, and the message is similar to what we have in Living, we need to look at life and cherish the moments    Happiness Activity No 9: Savoring Life’s Joys-paying close attention, taking delight in life’s momentary pleasures and wonders, through thinking, writing, drawing or sharing with another as it is explained in the life-changing book The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky    http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/01/from-how-of-happiness.html

Living is a marvelous motion picture, which will invite audiences to examine their lives, have they been sailing through them just like Mr. Williams before his epiphany, when confronted with the final exit, and what are the measures they need to take…Flow will be the element to bring into their lives, meaning, which will be explained in http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/mans-search-for-meaning-by-victor-frankl.html and some decisions will be required, Carpe Diem, Eudaimonia, and for more, well, just ask me, I seem to know and here is proof of that http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world