Takashi Shimura is absolutely wonderful as Mr Watanabe, 'the mummy' who has drowned in bureaucracy but slowly wakes up to life when he learns he's dying. He's assisted by a cheap novelist Yunosuke Ito and a young free-spirited girl, Miki Odagiri. But even she gets bored with his company. There's a great scene where he confesses his illness to the girl while contradictory happy music plays to accompany a birthday party behind them. And he tries to tell his son and daughter in law what's going on but they just think he's having an affair with the girl.
He dies, and in an increasingly drunken wake, his colleagues begin to realise why he so pushed for the development of a playground, and all promise to behave more humanely.. naturally, the following morning, all is forgotten. Great flashback where Watanabe will not be pushed around by gangster because he has nothing to lose. So it's as much a critique of bureaucracy as a lesson in appreciating life.
Photographed by Asakazu Nakai.
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