Local Retro Movie Theater In Kawagoe

The movie theater “Sukara-za” was opened a hundred years ago.

Info ‘Sukara-za”

In those days many masterpieces had been shown but the theater had closed three years ago.
Three months ago, this theater came back thanks to a local nonprofit organization.
The staff didn’t know how to run a theater at all.
The operational expenses were gathered by a lot of donations and local sponsors.
The staff held an event which the famous director talked about some movies.

Currently, this theater has been run by the NPO since for three years.

People who live in Kawagoe hope that this nostalgic movie theater remains open.
You can’t watch a latest movie but you can watch good old movie such as “Sound of Music” and Akira Kurosawa’s movies.
Besides you may feel a nostalgic sense in the theater.

“ikiru” in 1952 ; Kurosawa’s awesome movie

Akira Kurosawa was a famous Japanese movie director. You may know his most famous movie,’Seven Samurai’.
But I recommend his 1952 film “Ikiru”. ( “Ikiru” means “live” in English)
This movie describes an ordinary civil servant. He has worked a routine job for many years.Suddenly he discovered that he was suffering from terminal cancer. First he used all his money up to enjoy himself.However he found that it was a vacant life. Then he concentrated his little bit of energy on helping citizens through his job.

This movie impressed me for three reasons.
The first reason is that the leading actor played a ghastly patient.He tried to solve very difficult problems by himself. His colleague often thought he was mad. But the leading actor completed his job and was pleased with himself.

The second reason is the unique scenario. In the first half,  this movie goes along in chronological order. But in the second half,  his colleague looks back at the leading actor’s achievements.This scenario impresses the audience how great a job he did.

The third reason is that this movie has universality even now. This movie asks the audience “What are you doing with your life? why don’t you concentrate your energy on you job or other things and how do you finish your life.Whether you get a disease or not has nothing to do with living. If you have a lot of money, honor and time to spend, you may live a vacant life.

This movie creates an opportunity for us to think about our lives again.