I consider myself a Kurosawa fan, I've liked all his Samurai flicks and crime/noir pictures but Ikiru did not do it for me. So is this similar to IKIRU in many ways? BTW, I like character pieces just not IKIRU, just went to slow in my opinion. I loved the swing scene in it though.
Respect the cock, and tame the *beep*
I really couldn't say that you'd have to like ikiru to like this, they are quite different films imo.
I have to say i haven't seen many kurosawa films(which im trying to fix !)
all ive seen is ikiru, rhapsody in august, ran, red beard, dreams and sea is watching (well the script was kurosawa's). I felt ikiru was excellent and i did like red beard also.
However i really don't think they're similar enough to say if you'll like ikiru you'll definitely like redbeard or on the other hand if you didn't like ikiru you'll not like red beard.
Plus as i haven't seen enough of kurosawa films, im no real authority on saying whether you would like it in relation to other kurosawa films.
I guess theres only one way to find out! I think its definitely worth a watch...
Reading that you believe that Ikiru is a bit slow leads me to think that you might not enjoy Red Beard. The story is kinda similar, a guy learns to appreciate life much more, also add that Red Beard is 3 plus hours of a simple story slowly unfolding about this arrogant doctor, you might think it drags. I found both films to be two of the greatest films I've ever seen, you should still rent it or borrow it.
"Well, men are only men. That's why they lie. They can't tell the truth, even to themselves."