People are always looking for the meaning of life. Those people who have the meaning of life are happy ones. Factually, every life is meaningful, but it is necessary to realize this meaning. The meaning of life is the subject of discussions for philosophers, psychologists, politicians, economists and every individual who wants their life to be meaningful. People should look for the meaning within their life. The brightest examples of people who have found the meaning of life within their life are Amelie and Wantanabe, the main characters of popular movies.
Amelie as well as Wantanabe is looking for her place in the world and she has found her calling. She has not known what to do with her life before, and she has spent her life for senseless pleasures of a human life. An old metal box with memories about childhood belonging to some boy has made her life meaningful. She wants to find this boy and give him this box. This box has become meaningful for this boy as well as for Amelie. She understands that her life is meaningful when she helps people. Having helped Dominique Brotodeau to find his childhood, she begins to help people surrounding her. She helps a blind man describing him the streets he passes and in such a way facilitating his life. She inspires his father to realize his dream of touring the world. She helps her co-worker to find a couple among the customers of the bar. Making other people happier, Amelie becomes happy too.
Ikiru is another movie about the searching of the meaning of life. The main character, Watanabe is diagnosed to have a cancer, and he has six months to live. Watanabe who has been captured by daily routine before and spent all his life sitting at the desk in his office begins to think over his place in the world. He realizes that his life has been spent for unnecessary things, and he has not devoted any time to his family. He leaves his work having spent there nearly 30 years without any vacation and begins to search for the sense of life realizing that it is too late for him. He takes all his money and wastes them on all human pleasures hoping to taste the gladness of a human existence. Watanabe spends his time at bars, cinemas and restaurants trying to feel the joy of life but he cannot find the sense in all these entertainments. He understands that all his life was senseless and this idea torments him till his death. Watanabe says “I can’t die. I never lived.” Having so little time, he decides to accomplish something useful for others, and he collects the necessary documents for the building of a playground in a poor area of the city. Factually, he finds the meaning of his life, but too late.
Amelie’s and Watanabe’s meanings of life resemble each other. People are happy when they help others. Amelie finds her life meaningful when she plays an important role in other people’s fates, and Watanabe understands that he needs to do something useful for others before his death. Although Amelie is depicted as a lonely person, she is really happy as far as she finds the meaning of life very early and she has a lot of time to make good deeds for other people while Watanabe led senseless life spending all his time on working. Watanabe may hardly be considered to be a happy man as far as his life ends and he does not have time to bring sense to his life. Having done all his best and succeeded in his plans of building the playground, Watanabe understands the real sense of life.
Watanabe has done all his best to find the meaning of life spending the remaining six months on this aim. Amelie leads an ordinary way of life, and she does not think over its sense. The meaning of life has been realized by her accidentally while Watanabe has been looking for it deliberately. There are some situations in a human life that make them think over the sense of existence. It was the mortal diagnosis for Watanabe and an ordinary situation for Amelie. It should be noted that people find the meaning of their life not from their birth and this meaning may be changed during their life. Amelie finds the sense of life when she is a young girl while Watanabe realizes it only before his death.
Amelie as well as Watanabe realizes the sense of life accidentally. It was an unintentionally found box for Amelie urging her to find its owner so to help him to find his childhood while Watanabe found the meaning of his life met a girl who works at the toy factory. These two situations were crucial points for their life. It was the metal object that changed Amelie’s life while it was another person’s life that helped Watanabe to find his own sense of life. It is not necessary to go far away to find the place in the world. All necessary things and signs are near us so that the meaning of life is within the life itself.