This is a remake of Ikiru, the 1952 Japanese movie directed by Akira Kurosawa. It stars Bill Nighy, who plays a London based bureaucrat in 1953. Mr. Williams is a very dull man, quite serious, and doing his job as he is supposed to in the county Public Works department. Multiple times, he takes folders that are given to him, and put it on his pile of papers, stating that waiting a little bit longer will not harm the project. He then gets a diagnosis from his doctor, telling him that he is terminally ill, and that he will die in a few months time, which sets Mr. Williams on a path to find meaning to his life. He stops going to work, and goes on an adventure. He meets multiple characters, who will show him that not everything needs to be grand, and that life is seen in small things in life. When he comes back to work a few months later, and on his very last days, he sets his mind to help a group of women who have been coming to the Public Works department for months, trying to make them build a playground for children, where a destroyed factory once stood. His stubbornness makes everyone in the council work with him, and the playground becomes his legacy to the world. The movie starts a bit slow and dull, but it is very much in line with what the main character is living through. It picks up once the diagnosis is made, and you go through the journey with Mr. Williams. Fun fact, the movie is showed in 3/4th, with images that would suggest that the movie was indeed done in the 1950s.
Review of Living
