LIVING
Genre
Drama
Running time
102 minutes
Year
2022
Language
English
Subtitle
Arabic
Country
United Kingdom and South Africa
Director
Oliver Hermanus
Bio
Producer
Stephen Woolley, Elizabeth Karlsen
Cast
Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp, Tom Burke
Scriptwriter
Kazuo Ishiguro
Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro relocates Akira Kurosawa's 1952 masterpiece Ikiru to London, where Mr Williams (Bill Nighy, magnificently understated but bristling) is a management functionary in the council's planning office. For 30 years, he has ensured that there is no antagonism and no voices raised in his office, sliding anything that requires action – such as a mothers' petition for a playground - to the bottom of his in-tray. Only when he is diagnosed with terminal cancer does it hits him how much of his life he has squandered. He tries debauchery in the company of a louche writer (Tom Burke), inhales some optimism from a pretty young co-worker, Margaret (Aimee Lou Wood), and then resolves to do something worthwhile: get that playground built. It isn't a decisive victory – the office continues to be moribund without him – but there's plenty of hope in Mr Williams's revival.
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