A gentle and poignant Kazuo Ishiguro-scripted remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1953 film Ikiru about a man dealing with a terminal diagnosis
The terrible conversation in the hospital consulting room – everyone’s final rite of passage – is the starting point for this deeply felt, beautifully acted movie from screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro and director Oliver Hermanus: a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1953 film Ikiru, or To Live.
A buttoned-up civil servant works joylessly in the town planning department; he is a lonely widower estranged from his grasping son and daughter-in-law. In the original, he was Mr Watanabe, played by Takashi Shimura. Now he is Mr Williams, played by Bill Nighy.
Living is showing at the Sundance film festival and will be released later this year
