License to Live (Ningen gôkaku)

Release Year: 1998

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Review: Everything that Yutaka knew, everything that he held close was ripped away from him when he was 14 years old and was hit by a car putting him in a coma.  As he lay in a state of suspension, the world around him went on.  Wars were fought, championships were won and his family disintegrated.  When Yutaka(Hidetoshi Nishijima) suddenly awoke from his coma after 10 years, the 24 year old child found himself alone in a world that was completely changed.  There were no joyous cheers, or comforting hugs, only emptiness. it was if his recovery was only a burden.  The man who hit him visits him, but is only full of anger that he had ruined his life too on that day.   

The one companion he does have is Fujimori(Kôji Yakusho), his fathers old college friend who is currently staying at his old house.  But this relationship is a reluctant one.  Yutaka is essentially still a boy, having been denied the opportunity to mature over the last 10 years.  Fujimori is a bit of a recluse, and operates on the edge of the law.  He has no interest in caring for a child.  And yet he does.  He forces Yutaka into adulthood, at times literally dragging him to do certain things like visit a prostitute.  While its not the warmest family, it is all Yutaka has.  His childhood friends have all grown, and view him more as an oddity then a companion. Left completely alone, he is left to deal with his anger, immaturity and pain of losing his past.

Eventually his family members do come back to visit him, but they are no longer a family unit.  Each have gone their separate ways.  The family that Yutaka remembers is decimated.  While they still care for Yutaka, they have no interest in living in the past.  They don't want to reform the family, their pain is too deep.  While his family urges him to move on, and live his own life, Yutaka desperately clings to the past, trying to reassemble the life he knew before the incident.  Central to this plan is rebuilding the family dude ranch, which Yutaka obsesses over.  Unable to deal with the loss of his youth, he focuses on rebuilding what he can fix.  The only thing he can think to do is to rebuild the ranch and hope that his family comes around.  It is a desperate reach to try and regain his youth.

One of the themes that director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is known for is to have a protagonist obsessed with an eccentric project, completely blind to the absurdity of the endeavor, and usually at odds with the rest of society.  In 'Charisma' there was the special tree, in 'License to Kill' it is the ranch.  Yutaka clings to this idea of salvation.  He puts everything he has into it, not because it really matters, but because it is a diversion.  This connection, is realized wonderfully in an emotional, yet comical, climax.  It's not about the ranch, its about letting go, and his stubbornness or his fear to do this.

Another theme that is evident in the film is the process of aging, maturing, and the blurring of the line between adulthood and childhood.  Yutaka is essentially a boy that is forced to live in a mans world.  His friends are now adults far from the carefree days of their childhood when Yutaka last saw them.  They get to relive a bit of their youth when Yutaka shows up straight out of their childhood. However when they rob a comic book store like they did in their youth it no longer has the same joy.  They are adults now and the thrills of youth are in the past.

The idea of maturity isn't rooted in stone.  Maturity is generally associated with age and responsibility.  However, Kurosawa plays with this and shows that adults can be just as immature, scared and petty as the juvenile minded Yutaka.  When we are young we look up to adults as wiser and more mature than we are, but as we age we realize this is not always the case.  Yutaka gets this experience all at once.  His father doesn't want anything to do with him, or any part of responsibility at all, choosing to travel the world for a volunteer organization.  His sister is with a dim witted man, and both have no money or ambition, simply roaming about in their sports car.  The parents of one of Yutaka's friends squabbling over parental rights of their grown son, while he is fine being on his own.  Ironically Fukimori, the irresponsible low life who made it clear he had no intentions of ever being a father, is really the only one who shows maturity and at least attempts to look after Yutaka.  There are no reliable figures for Yutaka, he is forced to take care of himself, and this is what maturity is.

While dealing with many heavy themes there is a lightness and comical side to the film which makes it easily digestible.  Kôji Yakusho is a scene stealer, with his expressions alone conveying so much.  Not only is he the comical catalyst but he is the emotional center of the film.  It's not flawless and there are some moments which don't seem to add up, but its a very solid effort, and one which I'm enjoying more the longer I think back on it.  Its more a comedy than a drama, but it isn't afraid to throw down the emotional hammer from time to time.  There were times when I wished things were just a bit tighter as there were makings of a very powerful film.  All the same it is very effective in its delivery of complex emotional themes in a light weight candy coded capsule.
Rating: 3.5/5