{"id":7932,"date":"2022-01-22T23:15:32","date_gmt":"2022-01-23T04:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932"},"modified":"2022-01-22T23:15:32","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T04:15:32","slug":"sundance-film-festival-review-living-brings-akira-kurosawas-ikiru-to-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932","title":{"rendered":"Sundance Film Festival Review \u2013 \u2018Living\u2019 Brings Akira Kurosawa\u2019s \u2018Ikiru\u2019 to London"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Society functions to a degree because most people don\u2019t know when their lives will end. Having a sense of how much time someone has left in the world can affect their behavior entirely and inspire them to make decisions that are not at all in line with how they typically operate. It can also lead to a deep introspection, one that forces someone who has never before had to face mortality to take stock of what they have done throughout their years and the mark they will leave on the world when they are gone. <strong><em>Living<\/em><\/strong> offers a poignant portrait of one man\u2019s late-stage soul-searching journey.<\/p>\n<p>After World War II, Williams (Bill Nighy) works as a loyal civil servant in a government office, too accustomed to the monotony of his job to truly accomplish anything. When he receives a terminal diagnosis from his doctor, Williams is unsure of how to react. Rather than confide in his closest relative, his son, Williams contemplates all that he has done throughout his career and turns instead to a stranger, Sutherland (Tom Burke), and a young woman in his office, Margaret (Aimee Lou Wood), who makes him believe he may actually able to do something of importance with the little time he has left.<\/p>\n<p>This film is a remake of the classic 1952 film <strong><em>Ikiru<\/em><\/strong> from legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, adapted to a British setting with a screenplay from novelist Kazuo Ishiguro. The style of <strong><em>Living<\/em><\/strong> firmly grounds it within the time period in which it takes place, yet its story is a universal one that should be relevant to anyone who has been given the chance, however late in life or near the end, to truly consider how their actions have affected others and how they would like to change, even if their legacy is not impacted or known by anyone.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7933\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7933\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7933\" src=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Living-2.jpg\" alt=\"Living\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Living-2.jpg 600w, https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Living-2-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Living-2-315x420.jpg 315w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7933\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oliver Hermanus, director of Living, an official selection of the Premieres section at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Ross Ferguson Photography.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Director Oliver Hermanus\u2019 previous film, <strong><em>Moffie<\/em><\/strong>, sought to get to know its main character, a gay soldier in 1980s South Africa, intimately in the context of a greater community where his identity was seen as objectionable and unacceptable. This film takes a more personal approach to its protagonist, lingering on Williams as he ponders his most potent memories and the things he has does over the course of his life to stand out and be remembered. Learning from Margaret that he is perceived as a zombie of sorts only serves to send him further into prolonged introspection.<\/p>\n<p>Nighy is a terrific actor equally capable of drama and comedy. This role relies heavily on the former, reminiscent of his recent turns in films like <strong><em>Hope Gap<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>The Bookshop<\/em><\/strong>. His facial expressions do most of the talking, but audiences are also treated to Nighy\u2019s singing, which is a sincere improvement on his purposely humorous \u201cChristmas Is All Around\u201d from <strong><em>Love Actually<\/em><\/strong>. There is a genuine, raw roughness to the way in which he sings, and it comes across as very emotional and haunting.<\/p>\n<p>Nighy is joined by an exceptional costar in Wood, a remarkable young actress with few credits who is best known for <strong><em>Sex Education<\/em><\/strong>. She is able to navigate the line between romantic interest and trusted confidante, accomplishing that wonderfully and serving as a sounding board and dialogue partner to process Williams\u2019 feelings. The cast also includes Alex Sharp and Tom Burke, whose film <strong><em>The Souvenir<\/em><\/strong> has a similar pace to this one. <strong><em>Living<\/em><\/strong> is a pensive experience, one that really seeks to understand how a person interacts with the world and slows down to fully appreciate the way in which an impending ending can offer unprecedented perspective.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/author\/abe-friedtanzer\/\">Check out more of Abe Friedtanzer\u2019s articles<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Living <\/em><\/strong>makes its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Society functions to a degree because most people don\u2019t know when their lives will end. Having a sense of how much time someone has left in the world can affect their behavior entirely and inspire them to make decisions that are not at all in line with how they typically operate. It can also lead&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[6612,1024,6613,2021,6616,2023,2022,3425,6614,2024,3120,2235,6615,4918],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sundance Film Festival Review \u2013 \u2018Living\u2019 Brings Akira Kurosawa\u2019s \u2018Ikiru\u2019 to London | Cinema Daily US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Living, which is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, transplants Akira Kurosawa\u2019s 1952 film Ikiru to London.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sundance Film Festival Review \u2013 \u2018Living\u2019 Brings Akira Kurosawa\u2019s \u2018Ikiru\u2019 to London | Cinema Daily US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Living, which is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, transplants Akira Kurosawa\u2019s 1952 film Ikiru to London.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cinema Daily US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-23T04:15:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Living.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abe Friedtanzer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/movieswithabe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abe Friedtanzer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932\",\"name\":\"Sundance Film Festival Review \u2013 \u2018Living\u2019 Brings Akira Kurosawa\u2019s \u2018Ikiru\u2019 to London | Cinema Daily US\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Living.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-23T04:15:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-23T04:15:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6d4d1be5055fa0a21c6be5ee2b54ae10\"},\"description\":\"Living, which is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, transplants Akira Kurosawa\u2019s 1952 film Ikiru to London.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Living.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Living.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":450,\"caption\":\"Bill Nighy appears in Living by Oliver Hermanus, an official selection of the Premieres section at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Number 9 Films\/Ross Ferguson.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sundance Film Festival Review \u2013 \u2018Living\u2019 Brings Akira Kurosawa\u2019s \u2018Ikiru\u2019 to London\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/\",\"name\":\"Cinema Daily US\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6d4d1be5055fa0a21c6be5ee2b54ae10\",\"name\":\"Abe Friedtanzer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Abe-Friedtanzer-150x150.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Abe-Friedtanzer-150x150.png\",\"caption\":\"Abe Friedtanzer\"},\"description\":\"Abe Friedtanzer is a film and TV enthusiast who spent most of the past fifteen years in New York City. He has been the editor of MoviesWithAbe.com and TVwithAbe.com since 2007, and has been predicting the Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards since he was allowed to stay up late enough to watch them. He has attended numerous film festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, and SXSW, and is a contributing writer for The Film Experience, Awards Radar, and AwardsWatch.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.cinemadailyus.com\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/movieswithabe\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/movieswithabe\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=5\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sundance Film Festival Review \u2013 \u2018Living\u2019 Brings Akira Kurosawa\u2019s \u2018Ikiru\u2019 to London | Cinema Daily US","description":"Living, which is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, transplants Akira Kurosawa\u2019s 1952 film Ikiru to London.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sundance Film Festival Review \u2013 \u2018Living\u2019 Brings Akira Kurosawa\u2019s \u2018Ikiru\u2019 to London | Cinema Daily US","og_description":"Living, which is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, transplants Akira Kurosawa\u2019s 1952 film Ikiru to London.","og_url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932","og_site_name":"Cinema Daily US","article_published_time":"2022-01-23T04:15:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":450,"url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Living.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Abe Friedtanzer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/movieswithabe","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Abe Friedtanzer","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932","name":"Sundance Film Festival Review \u2013 \u2018Living\u2019 Brings Akira Kurosawa\u2019s \u2018Ikiru\u2019 to London | Cinema Daily US","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Living.jpg","datePublished":"2022-01-23T04:15:32+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-23T04:15:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6d4d1be5055fa0a21c6be5ee2b54ae10"},"description":"Living, which is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, transplants Akira Kurosawa\u2019s 1952 film Ikiru to London.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Living.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Living.jpg","width":800,"height":450,"caption":"Bill Nighy appears in Living by Oliver Hermanus, an official selection of the Premieres section at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Number 9 Films\/Ross Ferguson."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=7932#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sundance Film Festival Review \u2013 \u2018Living\u2019 Brings Akira Kurosawa\u2019s \u2018Ikiru\u2019 to London"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/","name":"Cinema Daily US","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6d4d1be5055fa0a21c6be5ee2b54ae10","name":"Abe Friedtanzer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Abe-Friedtanzer-150x150.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Abe-Friedtanzer-150x150.png","caption":"Abe Friedtanzer"},"description":"Abe Friedtanzer is a film and TV enthusiast who spent most of the past fifteen years in New York City. He has been the editor of MoviesWithAbe.com and TVwithAbe.com since 2007, and has been predicting the Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards since he was allowed to stay up late enough to watch them. He has attended numerous film festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, and SXSW, and is a contributing writer for The Film Experience, Awards Radar, and AwardsWatch.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.cinemadailyus.com","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/movieswithabe\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/movieswithabe"],"url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=5"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}