Ikiru (1952)

Yûnosuke Itô: Novelist

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Quotes 

• Novelist : How tragic that man can never realize how beautiful life is until he is face to face with death.

• Novelist : Come on. Let's go reclaim the life you've wasted. Tonight it will be my pleasure to act as your Mephistopheles, but a beneficent one who won't ask for your soul.

• Novelist : Misfortune teaches us the truth. Your cancer has opened your eyes to your own life. People are fickle and shallow. We only realize how beautiful life is when we face death. And even then, few of us realize it. The worst among us know nothing of life until they die.

• Novelist : Drinking when you have stomach cancer is suicide.

  Kanji : The thing is - I can't go through with it. "Go ahead and kill yourself," I think. And yet - I just can't do it. I mean - I can't bring myself to make it final.

• Novelist : Ecce homo. "Behold the man." This man bears a cross called cancer. He's Christ. If you were diagnosed with cancer, you'd start dying right away. But not this fellow. That's when he started living.

• Novelist : It's fascinating. I realize it's rude to call you fascinating, but you're an extremely rare individual. I'm just a slacker who writes second-rate fiction. You've really started me thinking. They say there's something noble about suffering and it's true.

• Novelist : You're amazing! Rebelling against your past self at this age! That rebellious spirit moves me. You were a slave to your own life. Now you'll become its master. It's our human duty to enjoy life. Wasting it is desecrating God's great gift.

• Novelist : We have to be greedy for life. They say greed is a vice, but that's outdated. Greed is a virtue, especially greed for enjoying life.

• Kanji : It's just that I've been such a fool. I'm just so mad at myself. Until a few days ago I had never even bought myself a drink. It's only now that I don't know how much longer I have to live that I've finally begun.

  Novelist : I understand. I understand. But drinking now is plain crazy. Besides, does it even taste good?

  Kanji : No, it doesn't. But for a little while I can forget my cancer and all the other painful things.

• Novelist : That's not art. A striptease isn't art. It's too direct. It's more direct than art. That woman's body up there? It's a big juicy steak. It's a glass of gin. It's a hormone extract. Streptomycin. Uranium!