The Fossil

Originally made for Japanese television, The Fossil feels like Kobayashi leaving behind his anger at systems and confronting mortality, as does his main character. In a surprisingly close telling of a very similar tale to Kurosawa’s Ikiru, Kobayashi confronts a life of workaholism that suddenly and definitively will come to an end. Combined with a travelogue that dominates the first two-thirds of the film, there’s real emotion in a few days of introspection over a life seemingly mislead befo...