Living

Oliver Hermanus’ British remake of Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece may be flawed but it fascinates and finds Bill Nighy on his best form.

Bill Nighy and Aimee Lou Wood

When I first heard that Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 masterpiece Living (sometimes referred to by its Japanese title Ikiru) was to be remade in England, it did not strike me as a wise move. Remaking a classic film is always a dubious enterprise and Kurosawa’s original, atypical of his work in general due to it having what was then a contemporary setting, was so thoroughly Japanese in character that transplanting it seemed a foolhardy notion. That reaction was so strong that even the news that the leading role was to be played by the admirable Bill Nighy failed to assuage my doubts. However, on learning that this new adaptation was in the hands of Kazuo Ishiguro it was possible to feel more optimistic: if anybody was equipped to adapt Ikiru and to place it in London around 1950 it would surely be the acclaimed author who came from Japan but then established himself in England and who is his best known in the sphere of cinema for his screen adaptation of his novel The Remains of the Day.

Now that the film is here one does not regret it, for this is a deeply respectful treatment faithful to all the essentials of the original. If some elements fall short, the film nevertheless contains many scenes that work brilliantly. Best of all is the opening segment which shows commuters who work for the L.C.C. travelling by train to Waterloo and then arriving at the office where they work under the eye of a long-established civil servant. The latter is the film’s central character now named Williams and played by Nighy in what may well be his finest performance yet. It is a useful stroke that we are introduced to this world by accompanying a young man, Peter Wakeling (Alex Sharp), on what is his first day at County Hall. From the opening shots of Piccadilly Circus that evoke this period to the sight of the commuters all wearing bowler hats, younger audiences are taken into a distant time that is unfamiliar by sharing with Peter his discovery of what life is like in his new post. The music score by Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch is a notable presence, one that encourages us to see this as a look back at a much earlier age – but the details of that time feel so authentic that one is caught up in the period.

The story of Living is centred on Williams, a widower who has spent his life in the civil service and who now learns that due to cancer he has only months to live. The early scenes establish him but also make it clear that the film is an attack on bureaucracy. A group of women with a petition for the building of a children's playground find themselves shunted from department to department with nobody caring if the plans end up in limbo. Williams as head of his department couldn't care less if the relevant papers end up buried in a pile of such items. Indeed, his lack of concern, his wearied spirit, is such that among his immediate staff he is known as Mr Zombie. However, although destabilising him initially and leading to his spending a night on the town, the shock of his death sentence paradoxically brings him back to life. A secretary named Margaret (Aimee Lou Wood) has some of the youthful energy and enthusiasm that he has long lost and on witnessing this he is himself re-energised and becomes determined that the playground project will go through.

Having created the repressed butler Stevens in The Remains of the Day, Ishiguro has no trouble in conveying the withdrawn impassivity of Williams, but he is less persuasive in his characterisation of Sutherland, the louche barfly played by Tom Burke, who briefly draws Williams into the world of bars and striptease clubs. Having been so convincing up to this point, this episode in the film does not really ring true and, if that is the film’s low watermark, there are later scenes which now and again hit a false note. However, Ishiguro does faithfully follow the original in featuring a long section that takes place after the death of Williams but which nevertheless shows him in flashbacks. These scenes flesh out a theme which suggests that even if people can come to see their faults, they all too readily fall back into them. This aspect is surprisingly close to a key element in one of my favourite films, 1950’s Last Holiday written by J.B. Priestley, and I do feel that that film managed to make a comparable point more subtly than happens here. The message delivered by Ishiguro is rather rammed home although it remains worthwhile of course. 

The director, Oliver Hermanus best known for Moffie (2019), is South African not British but seems at home with this material and misjudges only briefly when memory shots uneasily and pointlessly mix black and white images with ones in full colour. But, if Kurosawa’s Living is the version to see, opportunities to do so are limited and this, whatever its weaknesses, is a good alternative. Not only should Nighy’s performance be seen, but the supporting players are good too, not least Aimee Lou Wood the actress who plays Margaret and is new to me. Rendering Living in an English setting rather than a Japanese one proves to be a valid concept and its new context leads to the effective use of the Scottish song ‘The Rowan Tree’ as a key element at the film’s close. On behalf of film buffs, however, I must point out one error that occurs in this film: Williams and Margaret visit a cinema together to see the Cary Grant comedy I Was a Male War Bride and that is given as its title in this London setting. But the fact is that the film when released here went by another name entirely: You Can't Sleep Here.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Cast: Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp, Tom Burke, Adrian Rawlins, Oliver Chris, Hubert Burton, Zoe Boyle, Barney Fishwick, Patsy Ferran, Michael Cochrane, Lia Williams, Nichola McAuliffe, Ffion Jolly, Jamie Wilkes, Jessica Flood, Jonathan Keeble, Grant Gillespie, Thomas Coombes, Violeta Valverde.

Dir Oliver Hermanus, Pro Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley, Screenplay Kazuo Ishiguro based on the screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, Ph Jamie Ramsay, Pro Des Helen Scott, Ed Chris Wyatt, Music Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, Costumes Sandy Powell.

County Hall/Film i Väst/Film4/Ingenious/Filmgate Films/Lipsync Productions/Number 9 Films/Kurosawa Production Co.-Lionsgate UK.
102 mins. UK/Japan. 2022. UK Rel: 4 November 2022. US Rel: 23 December 2022. Cert. 12A.