What I Watched – May 2025

Ikiru: This 1952 Kurosawa movie is probably one of the best movies to be made on bureaucracy. A paper pusher, on receiving a cancer diagnosis, decides that getting a pending application for a children’s park cleared, would be the greatest achievement of his life. And his tireless efforts moving from department to department form the backdrop against which his strained family relationships play out.

Living: Followed up Ikiru with this 2022 British adaptation. The experience proved what a genius Kurosawa was.

As You Like It: Blogged earlier

The Lives of Others: Rewatched this 2006 as part of my Cold War history binge. The brutality of the Stasi and the horrors of Communism shown in this movie can make one grateful for the time and place of our birth.

Cabaret; I just loved this 1972 Oscar hit. Berlin of the 1930s – the decadence, anti semitism, the economic boom, political chaos and the rise of Nazis – is portrayed through a budding cabaret dancer and her lovers.

Much Ado About Nothing: Blogged earlier

Wings of Desire: There’s a scene in this classic in which the inner monologue of the passengers of a subway train come buzzing aloud, which is probably going to stay with me for a long time. The story follows two angels who silently observe the lives of people in Berlin. Invisible and eternal, they can hear human thoughts and emotions but cannot intervene or truly experience the world themselves – until of them decides to come down to earth and experience love, longing and all the other emotions that make us human.

Deutschland: Each of the three seasons of this series is set in Germany of 1983, ’86 and ’89 respectively. The Abel Archer War game that almost caused a Russian nuclear response, the East German arms trade and the political chaos after the fall of the Wall get covered in each of the seasons. The second season was the best of the three. With the family away in Kerala, I had the luxury of tackling the seasons one after the other!

Comrades and Cash: Blogged about this documentary tracking the murky and desperate moves of East Germany to raise hard currency to prop up their country

Goodbye Lenin: This was an amusing watch. When his mother – an East German loyalist – slips into coma and later recovers, the Berlin Wall comes down and the East is no longer a communist black hole leaving the son in a predicament. Should he inform her about this momentous historical event or should he hide all the events reaching her bedroom? He chooses the latter. Despite the comedic elements, the movie was moving when it dealt with the most painful legacy of the Wall – the separation of families and lovers.

2025: January | February | March | April