#yūnosuke itō

[hotvintagepoll]

Yūnosuke Itō (Ikiru)— God I am having the very devil of a time finding actual video clips of the disasterfail novelist he plays in Ikiru. But from Wikipedia, here's someone talking about his scrungliness: the "horse-faced actor...was a real chameleon, despite his instantly recognizable, distinctive features..." In Ikiru his drunken, dilapidated, unnamed novelist is one of the characters our protagonist encounters as he processes a fatal cancer diagnosis; he drags the protagonist out for a wild night on the town. He's sad and funny and deeply scrungly.

Estelle Winwood (The Glass Slipper)—scrungles so beautifully as the fairy godmother in cinderella with a very bird-like nature

This is round 1 of the contest. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. If you're confused on what a scrungle is, or any of the rules of the contest, click here.

[additional submitted propaganda + scrungly videos under the cut]

Okay, you can start seeing him at 1:05 here, the scruffy one in the dark hat, and an excellent bit at 5:38

Estelle Winwood:

[scenephile]

I'm just so furious with myself

[filmhoundsmag]

Elegant Beast (Blu-Ray Review)

Continue reading Untitled

[adamwatchesmovies]

Ikiru (1952)

Few works of art have the power to single-handedly change those who see them. Most only contribute to a lesson learned over time. Ikiru is the kind of reality-shattering story that should be mandatory viewing, particularly if you work in an office or are in a position to say “yes” or “no” to proposals. It’s a masterpiece that hasn’t aged a day since its release in 1952.

Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura) has worked in the same monotonous office position for nearly thirty years when he learns he has stomach cancer and less than twelve months to live. Suddenly confronted with his mortality, he attempts to make up for the time he wasted.

Ikiru does what you expect it to and then goes deeper. After learning they have less than a year left, most people would probably find (or try to find) comfort in family and friends - or more likely indulge in fleeting pleasures like food, drink, drugs, or sex. Ikiru isn’t about checking items off your bucket list. Watanabe was not a fan of drinking or fleshy pleasures until he received the bad news. Why would that suddenly change? He meets a novelist (Yūnosuke Itō). They briefly paint the town red and then they part ways. Watanabe then connects with a young woman from his office who hates her job (Miki Odagiri). You think the movie will be about her showing him how to live (that’s what Ikiriu means) but you’re wrong again. Watanabe tries to find happiness in them but discovers his expiry date makes it impossible. It’s a dire thought but it’s probably true that when you only have 365 days left, it doesn’t feel like enough for anything. He could try to reconnect with his son (Nobuo Nakamura) but the time for that has passed. If he did, it would only be because he’s found out he’s dying. The same for falling in love or trying to do the things he never had time for.

That all makes Ikiru sound very depressing. In some ways, it is… but the film is also unusually uplifting. It’s a call to arms, an invitation to wake up and live. Even if living means going back to what you were doing before but doing it with passion. Sitting at a desk and stamping papers all day could easily be a soul-crushing experience but isn’t it also an opportunity? If you got rid of the bad habits that form at the office, the kind that make you pass responsibilities to someone else who’ll care about them as little as you do; if you started caring about your job, took chances and aimed to make a difference, you could do a lot of good. You could leave feeling fulfilled and make the world a better place. A cynical person might say that no individual can make that much of a difference but isn’t that attitude a way to validate giving up?

Akira Kurosawa has crafted a wonderful film with many powerful messages. Among them the indictment of bureaucracy and the inefficiencies that so often accompany it, the decay of family, what it really means to live, the impact an individual can have if they are determined enough and what sort of legacy we should be proud to leave behind. It’s the kind of story that shakes you out of a stupor you didn’t even know you were walking through. Then, it ends on a note so powerful it's unforgettable. There isn’t anyone who shouldn’t see Ikiru. (Original Japanese with English Subtitles, on DVD, August 2, 2021)

[moviemosaics]

Ikiru

directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1952

[abs0luteb4stard]

WATCHED

映画を見て

[randomovies]

Behind the scenes of The Man Who Stole the Sun[太陽を盗んだ男, Taiyō o Nusunda Otoko]

Director: Hasegawa Kazuhiko Inspector Yamashita: Bunta Sugawara Bus Hijacker: Yūnosuke Itō

[hotvintagepoll]

Looks like Yūnosuke Itō and Estelle Winwood poll is over? https://www.tumblr.com/hotvintagepoll/762711185049223168/y%C5%ABnosuke-it%C5%8D-ikiru-god-i-am-having-the-very?source=share

I just fixed it. Sorry everyone about these mistakes! Here is the link so you can vote again.