life is short. it’s not to be wasted.

“gondola song”:
life is short, fall in love, maidens.
before the crimson colour fades away from your lips.
before the tides of passion cool within you.
for there will be no tomorrow.

from the movie “ikiru (to live)” by director kurosawa akira.

this is my favorite scene of all time. the actor, shimura takashi, portrays watanabe, who works at a city office for thirty years without passion. everyday just passes without purpose. one day, he finds out that he has terminal stomach cancer and only six months to live. he regrets that he has wasted his life and decides to do something good for society in the time he has left. he is determined to help a group of working-class mothers get a playground built. without telling anybody that he has terminal cancer, he dies alone in the snowy playground…

i heard a rumour a couple years ago that there was a plan to remake ikiru, with tom hanks in shimura’s role. i hope that plan was trashed, because they are wasting their time.

if you haven’t seen the original, make sure you do.

subarashii means “wonderful” and inochi means “life” in english.

when i took this photo, i was holding three doctor dolls with my left hand and a camera with my right hand. the green in the background is a scrap cloth i got from fabricland. i didn’t care to iron it. that’s why it has fold lines. i thought that was a nice effect.

this book is 6 x 6 cm. there are 42 pages.

to read the whole stupid story of mine, you can click the images below and the large image will show up in the lightbox. you can click the arrow on the right side of the image to flip the pages of the book. pala pala pala….

(click the images to view close up)

to read the previous episodes, click here.

these pala pala books are for sale in my online SHOP.