License to Live

License to Live (ニンゲン合格, Ningen gōkaku) is a 1998 Japanese drama film directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. The film was released in 1998 with mostly positive reviews.

Twenty-four-year-old Yutaka Yoshii wakes up in a hospital room after lying in a coma for ten years. His family is nowhere to be found with only the man who was responsible for his accident and subsequent coma comes to visit him and gives him money. Shortly after, he is picked up by his father's old loner friend, Fujimori who takes him to his fish farm to live that resides on the Yoshii family plot.

From here on, he is assorted a number of odd jobs around the farm. While an adult physically, Yutaka displays childlike behavior mentally and finds it difficult to adjust to his new life. The most notable aspect of this was when he was forcefully taken to a prostitute by Fujimori. He also hangs out with his childhood friends time to time.

His family eventually comes to visit him one by one after learning about his recovery. His father comes by first and learns that he and his mother divorced after his coma, his sister is engaged to a man and are seemingly bound to leave for America and his mother works in a cloth shop. His mother is the only one he has some sort of connection with as they had all made their peace with his coma and said their goodbyes. His mom tells him that he should lead his own life.

This propels Yutaka to reopen their family's old pony farm as he starts to build one in their plot in hopes of reuniting his family. He even opens up a small milk bar on the side as well. One day, he meets the man responsible for his accident again who is envious about his apparent "success" while he only lives a miserable existence as a construction worker riddled with guilt about the incident. That night, he destroys most of the pony farm in rage in front of Yutaka who initially tries to defend the place but realizes that the farm was just a part of his childhood that he deemed as a happy memory and that he has accomplished his task to recreate and relieve in that familial feeling again.

Fujimori, who was gone for a while leaving Yutaka alone comes back again to the more matured Yutaka. They both decide to leave the farm and travel around the country in search of a new life, Yutaka gets into a freak accident and dies surrounded by Fujimori content with his life. After the funeral with his family members present, Fujimori decides to leave by himself while carrying memories about Yutaka with him.

• Hidetoshi Nishijima – Yutaka Yoshii
• Kōji Yakusho – Fujimori
• Shun Sugata – Shinichiro Yoshii
• Lily – Sachiko
• Kumiko Asō – Chizuru Yoshii
• Show Aikawa – Kazaki
• Yoriko Dōguchi – Miki
• Ren Osugi – Murota
• Hiromitsu Suzuki – Kurume
• Kōsuke Toyohara – Doctor
• Masahiro Toda – Akira Ueda

Stephen Holden at the New York Times stated that "the metaphysical humor it gleans from the situation marks Mr. Kurosawa (who is no relation to Akira Kurosawa) as a quirky, smart filmmaker."^[1] The critic Tom Mes wrote that the film "strays far off the beaten path, shunning the predictability of your average celluloid tragedy to deliver genuine laughs".^[2]

• License to Live at IMDb

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