Life is brief — fall in love, maidens — before the crimson fades from your lips. — Ikiru (Gondola no Uta), 1952
Ikiru (生きる) · Akira Kurosawa, 1952. A civil servant with months to live finally builds one true thing — a small playground. The shot of him on the swing in the falling snow is, to me, the most alive image in cinema.‹›close ×
Good Morning (お早よう) · Yasujirō Ozu, 1959. Two boys go on a silence strike until their parents buy a television. Ozu turns fart jokes and neighbourhood gossip into a tender argument that small talk is how we tell each other we care.‹›close ×
Suzaku (萌の朱雀) · Naomi Kawase, 1997. Kawase's debut and the Caméra d'Or — a family thinning out in a depopulating Nara mountain village, told in light, weather and silence more than plot. It taught me to trust what a frame withholds.‹›close ×
