Kurosawa’s ‘Ikiru’ Comes Back to Life in ‘Living’
'Living' dives into many themes that we can all understand regardless of our cultural backgrounds. We can see this through the shared similarities between 'Ikiru' and 'Living'.

This video takes the viewer on a journey through the second straight championship season of the Chicago Bulls. Fresh off of their defeat of the L.A. Lakers a year earlier, the Bulls came back hungrier than ever and determined to prove that year one was no fluke. Getting out of the blocks quickly, the Bulls rolled to 67 regular-season victories, highlighted by the duo of Michael Jordan and emerging superstar Scottie Pippen. The Bulls rolled through the playoffs and faced the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA Finals. Nursing a 3-2 series lead, the Bulls fell behind by 15 points in the 4th quarter of Game 6 in Chicago. However, fueled by the reserves and with M.J. on the bench, the Bulls came roaring back to defeat the Blazers and clinch the title in front of their home fans at Chicago Stadium.
'Living' dives into many themes that we can all understand regardless of our cultural backgrounds. We can see this through the shared similarities between 'Ikiru' and 'Living'.
What seems like such a simple story of survival is so much more than that—it’s a story of family, and of war, and of destruction. It’s painful to watch, but not in a bad way. It makes its audience reflect on their own actions, and in how they are complicit in the sufferings of others as the adults in this film are. Grave of the Fireflies does not hold back from being heartbreaking, and it shouldn’t. It tells a message that needs to be heard decades after the war, and a story that cannot be forgotten by history.
'Free Guy' combines classic Disney (a white heteronormative love story), exploration of popular video games and the culture around them, and Ryan Reynolds adult humor in the best way to make a super fun family flick.
The Gates, John Burr’s new thriller film, is a disturbingly realistic portrayal of three Black twenty-somethings - Derek (Mason Gooding), Kevin (Algee Smith), and Tyon (Keith Powers), as they accidentally take a wrong turn into a gated community that’s more like a modern-day sundown town. The three friends witness a variety of crimes in their new surroundings, including an attempted homicide and an attempted rape. As they attempt to alert the authorities and do the right thing, they are thwarted at every turn by the worst horror stories of American conservatism - racist white suburbanites, reckless gun violence, corrupt police, religious mania, and a megalomaniacal pastor.
If you’re also a major fan of the familiar strangers story between two people of different generations, here are 5 underrated films you probably haven’t heard of, but might thoroughly enjoy.
Street Fighter cannot be genuinely recommended, even if it is abundantly clear that much effort was expended.