Ikiru Demo Blog

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From Wikipedia:

The movie stars Takashi Shimura, who played in many of Kurosawa’s films (most notably as the leader of the Seven Samurai), as Kanji Watanabe. Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Furthermore, his relationship with his son has become strained, as his son and daughter-in-law seem to care mainly about his pension and their future inheritance.

After learning he has stomach cancer and has less than a year to live, Watanabe attempts to come to terms with his impending death. He plans to tell his son about the cancer, but decides against it when his son does not pay attention to him. He then tries to find escape in the pleasures of Tokyo’s nightlife, but after one night, he realizes this is not the answer.

Worth noticing in the night club scene is when Watanabe requests a song from the piano player. He sings this song, Gondola no Uta, with great sadness. His singing greatly affects those watching him. The song is a ballad encouraging young women to find love while they are still young and beautiful, for life is short.

The next day, a chance encounter with one of his former subordinates leads him to pursue a different solution. Watanabe is attracted to her joyous love of life and enthusiasm. He opens up to her by saying he just wants to live one day in such a carefree, youthful way like she does. She reveals that her happiness comes from her new job, making toys, which makes her feel like she is friends with all the children of Japan.

Inspired by her example, Watanabe dedicates his remaining time to accomplishing one worthwhile achievement before his life ends; by dint of his persistent will, he is able to overcome the inertia of bureaucracy and turn a mosquito-infested cesspool into a children’s playground.

The last third of the film takes place during Watanabe’s wake, as his former co-workers try to figure out what caused such a dramatic change in his behavior. His transformation from listless bureaucrat to passionate advocate puzzled them. As the co-workers drink, they slowly realize that Watanabe must have known he was dying. They drunkenly vow to live their lives with the same dedication and passion as he did. They soon find themselves back at work, however, buried under the same meaningless busy-work they had vowed to fight.

An iconic scene from the movie is from the last few moments in Watanabe’s life, as he sits on the swing at the park he built. As the snow falls, we see Watanabe gazing lovingly over the playground, at peace with himself and the world. He again starts singing Gondola no Uta.

Wikipedia’s introduction (taken 7/20/08):

Design, usually considered in the context of applied arts, engineering, architecture, and other creative endeavors, is used both as a noun and a verb. As a verb, “to design” refers to the process of originating and developing a plan for a product, structure, system, or component. As a noun, “a design” is used for either the final (solution) plan (e.g. proposal, drawing, model, description) or the result of implementing that plan (e.g. object produced, result of the process). More recently, processes (in general) have also been treated as products of design, giving new meaning to the term “process design”.

Designing normally requires a designer to consider the aesthetic, functional, and many other aspects of an object or a process, which usually requires considerable research, thought, modeling, interactive adjustment, and re-design.

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A post from 2004. So you can see what a somewhat old post looks like. From Wikipedia:

• International Year of Rice (by the United Nations)
• International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO)
• 2004 World Health Day topic was Road Safety (by World Health Organization)
• Year of the Monkey (by the Chinese calendar).

For fear of Y2K. From Wikipedia:

The year 1999 was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. It was the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese zodiac.

A post from 1986 (so you can see what rather old ones look like). From Wikipedia:

Year 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar). It was designated the International Year of Peace by the United Nations.