The movie looks pretty interesting. It shares the subject with Kurosawa's Ikiru, but the attitude seems to be quite different.
The film reveals its entire plot in its opening moments: Itsuki, widower and successful businessman, will learn in Europe that he has cancer, and reappraise his dealings with family, colleagues and friends. Dropping the element of narrative 'surprise' works as a bold distancing device, the last thing you'd expect from the director of Kwaidan and Rebellion; it enables him to view Itsuki with a kind of engaged dispassion, and to make clear-eyed points about Japanese social conventions and ethics without troubling to keep a melodrama on the boil. Despite stretches that betray its origin in a TV serial (of twice the length), the result is exceptionally innovative for a Japanese film-maker of the older generation. The web of documentary, fiction and fantasy coalesces into a commitment to change that's emotionally tough, and never for a second sentimental.
Kaseki (aka Fossil)
1975 - Japan - Psychological Drama
Reviewed by Vincent Canby
Running Time: 150 minutes
Starring: Keiko Kishi, Ichiro Nakaya, Haruko Sugimura
Directed by: Masaki Kobayashi
PLOT DESCRIPTION
This drama is adapted from a Japanese television mini-series. In the story, an industrialist learns of a medical condition which will greatly shorten his life. He is on a trip to Europe at the time, and a glimpse of a Japanese woman in that setting causes him to fantasize about her as the personification of his impending death. As his dialogue with his imagined mortality continues, he actually meets the living woman who is the template for his fantasy, and together they tour rural churches. Gradually he comes to some kind of peace about the diagnosis. When he returns to Japan, he is met with a series of challenges which profoundly test the lessons he has learned. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
