Living is director Oliver Hermanus’s first non-South African film, following up his successes in Cape Town including films like ‘Moffie’ and ‘Shirley Adams.’ The screenplay by author Kazuo Ishiguro, 2017 Nobel Prize winner and author of Never Let Me Go, and is an adaptation of 1952 Japanese film of Ikiru, meaning ‘to live,’ which is inspired by Tolstoy’s 1886 Russian novella: The Death of Ivan Ilyich. With a history of previous successful adaptations, the trailer for Living looks as though it will live up to the high expectations which are naturally set with any adaptation.
Bill Nighy (Love Actually, Pirates of the Caribbean, Shaun of the Dead) stars as Mr Williams, a wealthy man in 1953 London who has recently discovered he has a fatal illness and his charming persona and believable character has only been met with great praise upon initial reviews of the film. Williams is described as a ‘changed man’ in the trailer who decides to ‘grasp life,’ who meets a young girl Margaret (Aimee Lou Wood) who inspires him to do so. The combination of Nighy’s reassuring nature and Aimee Lou Wood’s (Sex Education, for which she won a BAFTA for best female comedy performance) sweet demure, makes for a perfectly British, charming winter film, with a moral message.
Living has been met with a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which while isn’t necessarily the most reliable source due to its erratic nature, this exceptionally high score is a great indicator of the things to come. Here’s to hoping Living is met with the same warm reception by audiences, upon its release in cinemas across the UK on November 4th.