Open Access News Cancer and the arts: the fight for meaning – ’s “”

Wagner Wolfgang

To cite: Wolfgang W. Cancer Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece ‘Ikiru’: Man, friendship with a younger woman arises. She and the arts: the fight for cancer and the strive to reach one single and tells him that she loves to make toys for chil- meaning – Akira Kurosawa’s rewarding aim in life. dren. In her heart she feels as if she played “Ikiru” . ESMO Open 2017;1:e000131. doi:10.1136/ Many let’s question ourselves as well tend with all the children who get her toys. esmoopen-2016-000131 to live their lives within patterns of routine. It is this disclosure of the woman’s dedi- Working too much, reflecting too little and cation that alters Watanabe’s course. He often too late. remembers that there is an old project to turn But there are moments when things reach a a useless piece of land into a children’s play- turning point. And no doubt, the diagnosis of ground. But the initiative has been blocked cancer can be such a critical moment. There by lazy, resistant officials. The film’s hero are lots of books which describe human suddenly puts all his energies into this project catharsis of that sort. and wins. His life has become meaningful. Many of the films which describe malignant Seeing this old film which has been ranked disease in the West tend towards black roman- among the best cinematographic works ever ticism. There is the loving couple that is torn is a feat of the visual arts. You need not be apart or similar plots that often end in tears. a professional cineaste to understand the How different is this is 60-year-old film: true master behind it, Akira Kurosawa. The ‘Ikiru’ ('To Live’; 1952) by Akira Kurosawa pictures and scenes reveal the eye of a painter. (best known for his ‘Seven of 1954 Just like Henri Cartier-Bresson he also had a or ‘Ran’ of 1985). This black and white film magical view of things and was able to convey unveils man’s thoughtlessness in life if there it to the public. were not a diagnosis of incurable cancer all In one of its most moving scenes, Watanabe of a sudden. sits on a children’s swing on the playground in ‘When faced with a death sentence, how falling snow and looks at this piece of successful will you choose to live out the rest of your struggle for others. This man has found peace. days. And what if you do not possess even a He has done something worthy at last. single beautiful memory of love?’, is one of It is the choice of this individuum that the initial subtitles of the film. counts. Watanabe’s colleagues get to under- It is the story of the bureaucrat Kanji Wata- stand a little bit of his achievements, but fail nabe (Takashi Shimura), a man of middle age. to follow his path. Politicians quarrel over He stamps files, but he has not left a stamp who should earn the honour for having had on his own life. His wife is dead. His son and the playground built. Normal (?) life goes on. daughter-in-law seem only to be interested in The film won the ‘Special Prize of the his money, expecting funds after his death. Senate of Berlin’ at the Berlin International And all of a sudden his death is near. Wata- Film Festival in 1954. There even was a nabe gets a diagnosis of end-stage stomach remake for TV in 2007 (years after Kurosa- carcinoma which has always ravaged Far wa’s death in 1998) with some modifications. Eastern cancer epidemiology. Watanabe gets The story of Kanji Watanabe does deserve to to wake up being confronted with the verdict be remembered. he now has to live with. ‘To Live’ what does it mean? What should it General News/Science/ What does a man do under such circum- mean before time runs out? Together with the Medicine, Austria Press Agency - stances? He goes out and looks for diversion. question of one’s past, present state and future APA, Vienna , Austria This little man jumps into nightlife. But what- (‘Where am I to go to?’ being the basic ques- Correspondence to ever he does seems inadequate in his situation tion of our existence). Akira Kurosawa has Mr. Wagner Wolfgang; ​Wolfgang.​ and does not help to conquer the fright- transformed it into a wonderful film (https:// Wagner@​apa.​at ening knowledge of his end to come. A short www.youtube.​ com/​ watch?​ v=​ _​ mLrLHDdXI).​

Wolfgang W. ESMO Open 2017;1:e000131. doi:10.1136/esmoopen-2016-000131 1 Open Access

Competing interests None declared. and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://​creativecommons.​org/​ Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed. licenses/​by-​nc/​4.​0​ Open Access This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the © European Society for Medical Oncology (unless otherwise stated in the text of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which article) [year]. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, expressly granted.

2 Wolfgang W. ESMO Open 2017;1:e000131. doi:10.1136/esmoopen-2016-000131