"Ikiru," one of the most important films directed by Akira Kurosawa, has been turned into a musical for the first time and will premiere in October.
The musical is one of many events that commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of Kurosawa, who left a significant mark on the history of films.
Actors Masachika Ichimura and Takeshi Kaga will alternate to revive the protagonist played onscreen by Takashi Shimura.
Kurosawa was born in 1910 and made his directorial debut in 1943. Starting with winning the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival in 1951 with "Rashomon," he took the film scene by storm.
"Ikiru" (1952) is a masterpiece on par with "Seven Samurai," "Yojimbo" and other great Kurosawa films. The title means "to live."
Ichimura and Kaga play protagonist Kanji Watanabe. He is a section chief of a municipal government office who has worked there for 30 years. Having learned his days are numbered due to stomach cancer, he goes out in town, deeply depressed, and happens to meet a colleague, Toyo Odagiri. Moved by her vibrant vitality, he looks back on his life and gets on with his job again in a positive frame of mind.
For the musical version, Broadway composer Jason Howland wrote new music. The script and lyrics were written by Chikae Takahashi, who is known for her translations of the lyrics in the Disney animation film "Frozen." Amon Miyamoto directs the production.
"It's beautiful and very hopeful," Howland said of the story to The Yomiuri Shimbun. "As a result, it's clear to me that you could make it sing. What musicals do best is they tell the inside emotional journey of the characters."
He readily accepted the offer to write music for the production partly because it was a film his father has been fond of since he was young.
"The questions he [Kurosawa] is asking in the film, and the points that he's making about what it means to live your life, what it means to have values in your life, what was happening in Japanese society, how people are relating, all the things that he was working in the film, are things that we still look at today," Howland said, adding that it was a good idea to give this work new life on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his death.
In the film's climactic scene, Watanabe sings "Gondola no Uta" (The gondola song) on a swing as snow falls on the ground. Howland arranged the song, keeping the melody but using different chords. His music highlights each character's personality and emotions -- Watanabe's honesty to a fault, Toyo's cheerfulness, and the stylish demeanor of the novelist who watches over Watanabe. The composer also introduces a pentatonic scale -- a traditional Japanese mode -- to create an environment suited to the story.
The two actors sharing the lead role agree that the dramatic story of the film is well suited to a musical.
"The film zooms in on a silent Shimura to show his state of mind, but onstage you do so verbally and with songs," Kaga said. "I'd like to absorb Kanji's thoughts and speak his lines with real feeling."
Ichimura said: "Kanji is physically becoming weak, so I don't raise my voice too much. The difficult thing is how to put across his energy after he finds the meaning of his life. I'd like to show something like a candle becoming warmly radiant just before it goes out."
The actors know each other very well as both made their theatrical debut in a musical by the Shiki Theatre Company in 1973.
"I'm sure Kanji 'Ichimura' will pull out the comedy behind the tragedy," Kaga said when asked about his view on being double-cast to play the same character with Ichimura.
Ichimura said: "The results will be very different indeed. Takeshi is a really good singer, so I think his singing will make you feel a pang of emotion."
Ichimura had an operation for stomach cancer four years ago.
"I was fortunate because it was detected at a very early stage." he said. "What comes into my mind in the scene where Kanji is diagnosed with cancer is that [the late Bando] Mitsugoro told me his cancer had a bad countenance. I'd like to play this role thinking about the people who had to leave this world against their will."
The performances, in Japanese with an all-Japanese cast, will take place from Oct. 8 to 28 at Akasaka ACT Theater in Minato Ward, Tokyo. Other cast members include Hayato Ichihara and Atsushi Yamanishi. Please visit
www.ikiru-musical.com for more information.
Masterpieces get streamed
Video streaming service U-NEXT has begun to distribute 29 of the 30 movies directed by Kurosawa. His works, from dynamic samurai dramas to modern stories with subtle psychological expressions, can be appreciated via the service.
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