3 Sundance #3; Ishiguro gives Ikiru a sprinkle of poignancy distinctive in his literary works, and his screenplay successfully transplants this story to 1950s England, a period the director replicates aptly both in its appearance and its texture. However, Living does feel rushed at times and inevitably lives in the shadow of its Japanese counterpart. The first half of the film gives too little time to establish the setting, so while the life of Mr. Williams stands on itself, the final satire on the British bureaucracy comes especially less pointed and even disjointed from the rest of the film. Certain actions also feel out of space and added simply for being faithful to the original film