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Kurosawa's Existential Masterpiece: A Mediation on the Meaning of Life

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Abstract

In the first part of the paper, I try to clarify the cluster of moods and questions we refer to generically as the problem of the meaning of life. I propose that the question of meaning emerges when we perform a spontaneous transcendental reduction on the phenomenon ‘my life,’ a reduction that leaves us confronting an unjustified and unjustifiable curiosity. In Part 2, I turn to the film ikiru, Kurosawa's masterpiece of 1952, for an existentialist resolution of the problem.

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Gordon, J. Kurosawa's Existential Masterpiece: A Mediation on the Meaning of Life. Human Studies 20, 137–151 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005308216280

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005308216280

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